Out of the Past: Old Ghosts and New Enemies
by metgear5
Summary: With the supercomputer Skynet destroyed the world seems to have gotten back to normal. But the Bebop crew soon learns that an evil like Skynet always leaves a legacy behind.
1. Business as usual

Out of the Past: Old Ghosts and New Enemies

Foreword: Cowboy Bebop and all related characters are property of Sunrise Entertainment. Terminator and all related characters are property of Warner Brothers.

A/N: The time frame for this story is two months after the events in Out of the Past.

Chapter 1: Business as usual

Spiders from Mars Casino:

The Spiders from Mars had always had good business, and like any good casino it had its share of rigged machines and crooked dealers but that had never seemed to bother customers much. Well, not the dumb ones at least. As for the smart ones, the very few that there were, they rarely reported anything. Instead they tried to beat the system, show that their skills were so good that they could beat even a crooked system. Those in charge were more then happy to let them try, ninety nine percent of them would walk out with nothing in their pockets and probably owing the casino money. Those that did actually have the skill and could beat the system had to be dealt with. When Gordon ran the casino they would usually be taken to a secluded place and, in the tradition of the old days, knee capped. After Gordon had died in an '_accident'_ a while ago the new management had taken a different approach. The cheater would be allowed to leave with the money they had won and be followed by a casino employee. At first opportunity the employee would knock said cheater unconscious and take back the money they had cheated them out of. The casino's business card left on the unconscious gambler was a final message for them not to come back. So far the system had worked to great effect. Some cheaters were able to avoid the people sent after them and get away but they never came back and so far the new system had earned back far more money then they had lost and there was no plan to change anytime soon. Tonight it looked like they would have to go through the routine again with some guy with an expensive suit that was cheating on one of the craps tables. What really happened would be much more interesting then just a simple mugging.

Zach Stone had been having a good night. When he had first walked in this casino no one seemed to recognize him, which was a plus. Having a two million Woolong bounty on his head for extortion meant that he had to be careful wherever he went. Since no one seemed interested in him he decided to enjoy one of his other illegal vices, cheating at craps. His system for winning wasn't of traditional sort; it was the high tech sort. Using a small, camouflaged keypad in his palm and some dice loaded with microscopic circuits he could roll any number he wanted. If the pit boss checked the dice he wouldn't find anything without some cutting tools and a microscope, and so long as he lost every once in a while it would keep them from getting suspicious. What he didn't know was that this casino had encountered a device like his before and had set up electronic scanners to make sure they would know when someone is using it. Something else he didn't know was that it wasn't the casino he would be dealing with.

After about an hour of playing he was up about thirty thousand Woolongs and had no intention of stopping yet.

"Quite a winning streak you've got going." A silky voice said from behind him. Turning around he saw he was being addressed by a hot little number with purplish hair and wearing a tight black dress that left very little to the imagination.

"Once in a lifetime run." Zach replied his usual pick up line. It had worked a hundred times before and it seemed to working again this time.

"All that money and no one to share it with. What a shame." The woman said as she came up and started to put her arm around him. She seemed to know the game and Zach was about to continue when he felt something starting to poke him where the woman had put her hand. Not being stupid Zach knew that whatever it was couldn't be good so he quickly knocked her hand away and started running.

"SHE'S GOT A GUN!!!" He shouted at the top of lungs as he took off. The statement had the desired effect, the customers started to panic and casino security started to converge on the woman, who started to yell even louder then the fleeing customers.

"Let me through!! I don't have a gun!! LET ME GO!!!!" Whoever it was sure had a lot of lungpower.

{Too bad it won't help her.} Zach told himself with a grin. By the time they got this straitened out he'd be halfway to Ganymede. All he had to do was get through the slot machines and…

"Hey pal how's it going?" A slurred voice asked. Out of nowhere some tall skinny guy stepped right in front of Zach, forcing him to stop.

"_I'm_ going if you get my drift." Zach said and tried to go around the drunk, who followed the move and continued to block him.

"What, with all the fun that's going on?" The drunk said in disbelief. "I heard there's some broad with a gun holding up a blackjack table. Sounds like a million laughs." Zach, however, was not laughing. This idiot was blocking his only escape route and he couldn't stay there for long. Deciding to take the initiative Zach took a swing at the drunk's head. In a blur of motion the drunk's arm came up and intercepted Zach's punch.

"Wha..?" Was the most intelligent thing Zach could think of to say.

"Now that wasn't very nice." The drunk stated, sounding completely sober and about twenty IQ points smarter. Now really pissed Zach swung his other fist but the 'drunk' just grabbed his wrist and threw him head first into one of the slot machines. The impact knocked the slot machine over and the senses out of Zach. For some reason he couldn't move but he could still hear and see, not that he could see much lying on top of a tipped over slot machine.

"What's going on here? Who are you and who is that?" Another voice asked.

"Me? I'm just you're regular everyday bounty hunter." The drunk answered. "And that is my latest bounty."

{Damn! A bounty hunter!} Zach thought to himself. He didn't think he'd get caught _this_ easily.

"Can I see your license?" The second voice asked. More then likely casino security.

"Sure." The first voice answered.

"All right Mister Spike Spiegel, he's all yours." The second voice said. "By the way, that woman that he said had a gun wouldn't happen to be with you? She's claiming to be a bounty hunter to."

"If I say no is she going to jail?" Spike asked.

"Nope. She doesn't have a gun and she wasn't cheating at anything so there's nothing we can hold her on."

"Then I guess she is." Spike answered. Was it Zach's imagination or did Spike sound disappointed at what the security guard said?

Somewhere on Earth: That same time

In one of the many wastelands that used to be the cities of Earth a single vehicle drove along the shattered remains of a highway. On the outside it was a large, very ordinary looking van but inside was anything but ordinary. Inside was what amounted to a mobile command center with the highest grade tracking devices money could buy.

"It never ceases to amaze me that whenever we get a positive ID on one of these things it's in places so out of the way nobody in their right minds would go to." Said someone who was manning the tracking equipment.

"It's because they know that would be the best place to hide. I thought we already went over this Specs." A voice from up front answered.

"Just trying to keep myself awake John." Corporal James 'Specs' Ritch answered.

"Try driving on a road like this for two hours, that'll keep you awake no problem." John Connor answered, as he had to make a sudden turn to avoid a pothole the size of a small car.

"No thanks." Specs replied. All together there were five people from the ten man 'Terminator Crushers' unit that had been formed shortly after the destruction of Skynet in the van. Their mission was to hunt down and exterminate the remaining Terminator robots that had been built before Skynet became sentient and wired all other robots into himself. Estimates on how many were left ran as low as twenty to as high as two hundred and their experience in fighting these machines, as well as the plasma rifle each one of them carried, made them the best people for the job. In the front, sitting next to John, was Kyle Reese, John's best friend and one of only a handful of people to know the whole truth about the short but bloody war with Skynet and its origins.

In the back of the van was Specs, who had lost a leg during the final battle with Skynet and recently had it replaced with an artificial one. Second there was Corporal Max Winters, the team medic who had helped keep Specs alive after a stray plasma bolt had blown his leg off. The third member of this group was Lieutenant Patrick Roberts, who had been second in command of Jason West's squad when it had been his. West had died on the mission to infiltrate Cheyenne Mountain and as a result John and Kyle had been given promotions to the ranks of Captain and Lieutenant respectively.

After the new unit had been formed John had filled the empty position Spike had left with Captain Al Belkin, a friend of West's and someone he knew they could trust. Once they had a full roster John had broken the unit up into two five man teams, knowing they'd be able to find and destroy Terminators faster in smaller groups but not making the groups so small they'd put themselves at risk of being overwhelmed. Al was in command of the second group that was to the west of John's checking out a second supposed Terminator sighting. Many of these sightings were false alarms but they had to check out each one just to be sure. In the two months following the destruction of Skynet they had destroyed a total of fifteen 'rogue' Terminators and it looked like it they would be in this for the long haul.

"You're sure this is the real thing and not some old coot seeing something?" Kyle asked Specs.

"The physical description matches a Terminator perfectly, and reports say he acts like one to. So yeah this is the real thing. Knock on wood." He said and knocked on his artificial leg.

"Specs, that joke wasn't funny the first time and it's not funny now." Roberts said. A loud bark seemed to agree with him. "And it looks like Killer doesn't think so either."

'Killer', a big German Shepherd that was currently lying on the floor of the van, was the non-human member of this team. Knowing the reactions dogs had to Terminators John decided that having one with each team would help them track down the remaining robots. John specified only two qualifications for the dogs they would work with. One: They needed to always obey commands when they're given them, no matter what. If they didn't there was a good chance they would get shot in a crossfire. Second and most important, the dogs had to like everybody, and that meant _**everybody**_. No matter how a person looked or acted the dogs would go up to anyone and try to make friends with them. That way if they ever acted hostile John and the others would know there was a Terminator in the area. ISSP had delivered, and the two dogs, named Killer and Mauler as a joke on their good nature, showed that so long as a person didn't try to hit them they would go up to anyone to have their ears scratched.

"That's enough with the jokes you two. We're here." John said as the van pulled to a stop. "Standard procedure. Roberts, you and Killer will be point; the rest of us will back you up. Try to stay out of sight and keep in radio contact at all times. Any questions?" When there were none the five of them put on overcoats to hide the plasma rifles they carried. They went on foot to the populated part of the city and one by one they broke off from the group and tried to blend in with the crowd. Roberts continued to walk Killer like he was just a person giving his dog some exercise so he wouldn't get any unwanted attention.

"Doggie!" A young voice squealed. Looking the direction the voice had come from he saw a little girl no more then four years old running towards Killer.

"Sit." Roberts told Killer and the dog obeyed. Before the girl got much closer her mother grabbed her arm, yanking her to a stop.

"What did I tell you about going near strange animals!?" The mother scolded.

"It's alright ma'am he's harmless. She can pet him if she wants." Hearing that the girl slipped out of her mother's grasp and went over to Killer, who lowered his head so she could scratch him behind the ears. Giggling the little girl began patting the large dog, who started wagging its tail.

"I'm sorry if we're bothering you it's just that when she sees an animal she just has to go up and meet it." The mother apologized.

"It's no problem at all ma'am" Roberts responded. John had said that when there was a chance to talk to locals they should. What they have to say might give them information on the Terminators they were tracking. No such conversation was needed here as Killer's tail stopped wagging and he suddenly became very alert. Looking over to a side street Killer's ears went back and he began growling loudly.

"Is something the matter?" The woman asked, nervous now that the large dog was becoming aggravated. Roberts wasn't listening. He was looking in the direction Killer was growling at trying to see if the Terminator the dog had detected was in plain view, it wasn't.

"Ma'am this is a police emergency. Take your daughter inside and stay there."

"What…?" The woman started to say.

"Now!" Roberts hissed. The woman nodded and grabbed her daughter's arm, dragging her into a nearby shop. "Track!" He told Killer. The dog stood up and began to lead Roberts, who activated his radio. "Got a confirmed sighting West of my current location."

"Keep going, we're right behind you." John's voice answered. Glancing around quickly Roberts saw that the other members of the team were heading in his direction and knew they had his back. He let Killer lead them through a side street to an area that had close to a dozen homeless people milling around, some asleep on the ground. The ones that were awake began to back off fearfully from the large angry dog and the five strangers that came with it. Killer focused his attention on one sleeping homeless person who was facing away from them. The person's clothes were filthy rags but he looked far too large and well fed for someone who had apparently been homeless for so long. Kyle leaned down and picked up a small hunk of fallen masonry about the size of a softball. Looking over at John he pointed to the chunk of masonry and then to the sleeping person. John nodded in response and everyone reached for their plasma rifles.

"Down!" Roberts hissed and Killer laid down, still growling. Once they were all ready Kyle threw the piece of masonry as hard as he could at the sleeping man's head. It struck dead on and shattered, getting no reaction from the man. That was all they needed to see.

"Terminator!!" Kyle shouted and the five of them raised their plasma rifles. Its cover blown the Terminator rolled over and started to aim an old beat up automatic pistol but John and the others fired first, shooting off the one of the Terminator's arms and putting a plasma bolt through its head.

"Don't worry it's dead." John said to the frightened civilians. "All right, lets haul this son of a bitch out of here." Now came everyone's least favorite part, disposal. It was nothing fancy, if the Terminator was neutralized but intact they just took the downed machine somewhere safe and put a plasma bolt through its power cell. The explosion that followed would take care of the rest. It wasn't glamorous but it was part of the job.

"John can you hear me?" Al's voice said over John's radio.

"Loud and clear Al. We just managed to bag another one."

"Good, because we've got a problem."

"What kind of a problem?" John asked. He was quiet as he listed to Al explain. "You're shitting me! That many?! Where the hell are they…" John went slightly pale at what Al said next. "We're on it." He said and turned off the radio. "I want everyone out of here right now!" He shouted at the civilians who just stood there. "I said now!!" To drive the point home he fired a few shots from his plasma rifle into the air. That caused the civilians to run. "Sit that bastard up." He told Kyle and Specs.

"What for?" Kyle asked.

"Just do it!" John ordered. Confused the two of them got the Terminator into a sitting position. "Now everyone start running." John said and took aim. Knowing now wasn't the time to ask questions the others started running just as John put a plasma bolt through the machine's power cell. A few seconds later the power cell went critical and exploded. John ignored the explosion and started back to the van.

"John what the hell is going on?" Max asked.

"We've had a multiple sighting. As many as a dozen Terminators in one place." That set off alarm bells for everyone. That many Terminators wouldn't be in one place unless there was some kind of coordination.

"Where have they been sighted?" Roberts asked.

"Near one of Skynet's old hangouts." John answered.

"Shit!!"

"Exactly." John said as he opened the driver's side door. "We need to get there and fast!"

"Damn it, why couldn't ISSP have given us air support?!?" Kyle shouted as he and the others got in. "We could get there a lot faster if we flew!!"

"Because the brass, in all their infinite shitheaded reasoning, thought with Skynet gone we wouldn't need any type of back up or different vehicles." John replied.

"What about calling another unit to give us a lift?" Roberts asked.

"Al already tried that. No one's close enough to help. We're on our own." John answered as he gunned the van's engine and started racing toward where Al had indicated.

"Business as usual." Kyle snarled.


	2. Discovery

Chapter 2: Discovery

In orbit above Mars:

"HEY!! Where do you think you're going!?!? I'm not finished yet!!" A highly agitated female voice echoed through the Bebop.

"Looks like the kids are home." Jet sighed, looking up from his computer. Ed continued to be engrossed with whatever she was doing on her computer, ignoring the stomping sounds headed their way. The two of them had landed only seconds before and already they could hear them fighting.

"I'm trying to keep my eardrums from bursting!!" Came Spike's response. A few seconds later he walked into the lounge.

"That's the least you should worry about!!" Faye shouted as she came storming in.

"I could have sworn when you called you told me you got the bounty." Jet said, trying to stop the latest shouting match.

"We did." Spike answered as he plopped himself down on the couch. Faye stood behind him. "It's just that Faye is upset about one little problem she had…."

"I don't think me going to jail would be considered a _little_ problem Spike!" Faye snapped.

"You're right. It would have been proof that god does exist." Spike replied nonchalantly. Faye's eye began to twitch and Jet stood up before this really got out of hand.

"Now wait a minute!" Raising his voice got their attention pretty quick. "Spike, according to you the bounty was caught with almost no trouble and that you actually managed to keep the damage to a minimum. Other then five hundred Woolongs all of the reward is there, and to show how impressed I am I'm not going to ask _what_ kind of damage you caused. If everything went so well what the hell are you two fighting about?!?"

"Well there was this misunderstanding…" Spike started.

"MISUNDERSTANDING?!" Faye shouted.

"You'll get your turn Faye." Jet told her. "Once I hear both your stories I'll try to figure out how much of each is true." Faye turned slightly red but Spike maintained his cool demeanor.

"Anyway, we went with the plan you suggested Jet, and I would again like to state that I thought having her going it alone was a bad idea. On another note I'd like to mention that I was right."

"I take it things didn't go as smoothly as you implied." Jet stated. Spike shrugged.

"From what I heard this guy wasn't a complete idiot and figured out who Faye was before she could sedate him and he took off." Faye let out an irritated growl.

"So where does this misunderstanding come in?" Jet asked.

"That little creep shouted that I had a gun and the security guards came after me instead of him!!" Faye stated, still obviously angry.

"Actually it wasn't a bad idea." Spike stated. "It probably would have worked to if I hadn't been there to back her up." Faye turned bright red.

"Then this lunkhead says they can take me to jail for all he cares!!!" She shouted.

"Now that's not true." Spike replied. "I specifically said…."

"Look I personally don't care what you said, so long as you got the bounty without too much trouble." Jet interrupted. If he let this go on there was no telling how long it would last. "So did anyone recognize you?" He asked, hoping to change the subject. It worked.

"As a matter of fact no." Spike replied with a laugh. "They actually asked to see my license. Kind of glad to tell you the truth. I never liked it when people came up to me and saying that I looked familiar." In the weeks following the last battle with Skynet people had recognized Spike from the news reports. Of course he denied ever being on Earth or fighting killer robots. If there was one thing Spike did not want it was publicity. After a while people had stopped asking him about it and now nobody seemed to even recognize him, which suited Spike just fine. "So what about our friends on Earth? They make any headlines lately?"

"Yeah. A three sentence blurb between the weather and sports reports." Jet shook his head. "One of the biggest events in human history and now they're treating it like it was just a small time robbery."

"Looks like TV really does shrink people's attention spans to five seconds." Spike agreed. In truth there was a lot more to it then that. For starters everything, at least that's what the public believed, happened on Earth. Who cares if something happened on a planet nobody in their right mind would go to, no matter how exciting it was? On top of that Skynet had been completely destroyed, so why should anyone worry about it anymore? Mary Somers was still regarded as one of the best reporters in the solar system, but like Jet had said, her breakout story was now nothing but a time filler. And what about the heroes of this whole thing? They had effectively been banished to Earth to clean up what was left of Skynet's mess. True the 'rogue' Terminators, as they had been calling them, were dangerous and needed to be dealt with but to maroon people like that was cruel. Together they had saved the world and what did they get in return? For John and the others it was a virtual prison sentence and for the Bebop crew, no fame, no glory, and most importantly no reward. That sill burned everyone, they put their lives on the line and the only thing they got was a halfhearted thank you and ship repairs. Oh well, whatever happens, happens.

"Makes you wonder how John and his buddies are getting along these days." Faye said.

"According to John's uncle and mother everyone's fine and they have no idea when they'll be finished." Jet answered, almost smirking at the looks of surprise on the faces of Faye and Spike.

"And how did you manage to talk to John's uncle?" Spike asked. "According to the news reports he retired to some fancy resort and took John's mom with him to get away from all the publicity they were getting." Of course only part of that was true. It didn't take a genius to tell that the Red Dragons had put him there so he wouldn't be telling anyone something they shouldn't hear.

"Now you know a good magician never reveals his secrets." Jet said.

"But magician's assistant Ed can tell!" Ed shouted. "Edward tells that it was Ed who found John person's long lost family!" She stated over dramatically. Spike and Faye looked to Jet for the English translation.

"Ed wanted to talk to John and Kyle so she was trying to contact them on Earth. What we didn't know was that they didn't have long-range communicators and no one was willing to be a relay, or even knew where they were. So instead of searching for John and Kyle she started searching for where John's uncle and mother had gone. It took her only ten minutes to find them, and John's mom was a bit surprised to see someone like Ed calling and asking about her son. Who knows what kind of conclusions she jumped to when out of the blue she answered the phone and there was some kid saying she had been searching for John." Spike and Faye smiled at what they thought was most likely the first thing Sara Connor had thought of, that she was grandmother and no one knew it. Something like that definitely would not reflect well on John's character.

"What? Ed didn't say anything bad. Ed was very polite." Ed protested. This time the three of them chuckled. {Big people are weird.} She decided and went back to just listening.

"Anyway, I took over the conversation before Sara could get any ideas and once I convinced her we were friends of John's and not stalkers she told me what she knew. John has been contacting them as often as he can but according to him they've gotten things down to a routine on Earth so there's nothing new to say."

"So what's he been saying about us?" Faye asked.

"Funny you should mention that." Jet replied. "When I explained exactly who Ed and I were she said that John's told them all about us."

"This should be good." Spike remarked.

"Actually, yeah it is." Jet replied. "She said that John hasn't spoken of anyone so highly except his dad and uncle." Again he couldn't help but be amused by the looks of surprise. "That's according to John. According to Sara you," He gestured to Spike. "reminded her of her friends from the streets, well meaning but a little rough around the edges." Spike shrugged in response. "She said I sounded like the type of cop James and Robert Connor hoped John would become. Becoming a bounty hunter probably wasn't something she would want John to do but she did understand the reasons I had for leaving the force. Ed, well… She didn't quite know what to think of Ed but decided that she did seem like everything that John said she was. Intelligent, friendly, cheerful, and downright insane."

"Ed thanks John person for saying nice things about Ed." Ed chirped.

"So what about me?" Faye asked. "Does she think I'm some horrible influence on her son? Or just something he would have hauled in on a normal day with ISSP?"

"None of the above." Jet answered, his grin widening. "You actually remind Sara of herself when she was younger." Spike immediately started laughing. He couldn't tell what was funnier, the actual statement or the way Faye's face looked right now. Even laughing as hard as he was he remained aware enough to jump off the couch when Faye threw a punch at the back of his head. Faye's own momentum made her fall forward, bouncing off the couch and onto the floor.

"You'll never win the mother of the year award acting like that." Spike scolded as Faye jumped to her feet.

"It never ends." Jet sighed as he watched the chaos unfold.

"Again and again and again some more!!" Ed chanted.

On Earth things were a bit less cheerful. Skynet's old hangout turned out to be the destroyed Terminator production facility, a fact that did not fit well with anybody. John had driven the van the way Al had told him to, taking the long way around to avoid detection by any Terminators already there. Pulling up next to the second van hidden in an outcrop of rocks a couple of miles away John saw the second team had already fanned out and Al was looking through a pair of binoculars at the activity.

"What's the situation Al?" John asked. Instead of answering Al handed him the binoculars. Putting them up to his eyes John looked and saw at least eight Terminators milling around, some of them armed.

"Been like this for a couple of hours now." Al explained. "First sighting was around three this afternoon by a mechanic looking for spare parts. He reported seeing three of them but by the time we got here there were almost a dozen. We didn't want to go in at half strength so we called you guys. In the two hours it took you to get here seven more have shown up, some in vehicles, brining the grand total to eighteen."

"So how come I only count eight?" John asked. "Are they sending out patrols?"

"We thought about that but we haven't had any other contact then what we've seen. We had to hijack a communications satellite but we finally found out what's going on. Those eight you see are on the outskirts of the facility, the rest of them are inside." John lowered the binoculars and shook his head.

"That's just great. Playing hide and seek with a bunch of Terminators underground." John muttered.

"I haven't even gotten to the worst part yet." Al said. John exhaled loudly. It always seemed to get worse. "We took a close look at the satellite footage and found something disturbing. They're not just wandering around aimlessly, they're looking for something." In John's mind that set off every alarm imaginable.

"Ok this is how we're going to do things. Callahan, Smith, you two stay with your van and guard it but don't shoot unless absolutely necessary. If something goes wrong you two will have to get on the horn and get help down here. The rest of us will take my van and rush the facility. We're armored well enough to withstand anything short of a missile hit so we should be able to get in with relatively little damage. We'll use the firing slits to take out any above ground resistance then go inside the facility and finish off whatever's down there." The ISSP brass had proven they weren't total idiots and provided John's team with vehicles that they were able to both track and fight from. There were a total of six slits, three on the right side of the van, two on the left and one at the back. It made the confined space of the vehicle even more so but it still allowed them to fight.

"All right you heard him. Mount up and get ready to roll out!" Al shouted.

"The dogs to." John added. "We'll need them to search the inside once we get there." With the plan set the rest of the squad piled into the second van and took up their positions. Al would be driving and John would be riding shotgun, firing out the window. To keep the Terminators from finding the second van Al carefully drove so that their approach would be from the opposite direction. Once in position Al floored the gas pedal and John started shooting at the Terminators on the surface. He dropped a couple of them before they returned fire with their weapons. Ducking back inside to avoid getting his head shot off John calmly watched as the bullets impacted and ricochet off the windshield.

"Get ready back there!" Al shouted and, in what most would call a stupid move, drove so that the van now had Terminators on all sides of it. A split second later the area was lit up with flashes of light as John's squad opened fire. Within seconds all the Terminators were down and not moving.

"Are we clear?!" John shouted.

"They're coming up out of the ground!!" Roberts shouted and began firing again. He was on the left side of the van with Kyle arming the other firing slit, away from the door.

"Roberts, Kyle, keep us covered! The rest of you out and secure the area!!" John shouted. The main and passenger side door opened and the others got out. Circling around the van the other squad members added their firepower to the fight and the Terminators stopped coming up.

"How many was that?" Al asked.

"I counted about thirteen." John said.

"I saw twelve." Kyle put in. The others gave similar numbers.

"Good. If Al was right in his total count that should leave about six in the factory. Specs, Max, you two keep an eye out up here. The rest of us are going in. We go in teams of three. Kyle, myself and Al will take Mauler and search one half of the complex. Roberts, Maxwell and Henderson will take Killer and search the other half. Keep in radio contact and if things get too heavy fall back. Let's move." With the two chosen teams John led them up to the point where they had seen the Terminators come put of the ground.

"Whoa." Kyle said, summing up what everyone was thinking. They had thought that this would be a regular entrance but found that it was a giant hole caused by the laser strike during the battle. There was a walkway leading down into the actual complex, most likely put there by the Terminators to allow easy access. Two things about this place stood out. One, it was _huge_. John guessed you could probably fit the Bebop in here with ease, even though it was partially collapsed. Two, it was really dark. Terminators didn't need light to see so they had no reason to reactivate the lights. Normally that would give them an advantage but with the dogs John's group were able to track them even in the dark. Turning on their flashlights they split up.

"So what do you think they were looking for?" Al asked has they began searching. "Nothing down here looks like it would be salvageable."

"Who knows." John responded. "Maybe they were programmed to come back here if they didn't get any new orders." Before the conversation could go any farther Mauler began to growl. Training taking over they three humans threw themselves to the ground just before bullets started whizzing in their direction. Aiming at the muzzle flashes they returned fire and dropped the Terminator that had opened fire. "That's one down." John reported into his radio. In the distance he heard Killer barking and more gunfire, both conventional and plasma.

"Damn that was close!!" He heard Roberts shout. "There were three of them down this branch. Looks like they had an ambush waiting for us, almost like they were protecting something."

"If they were protecting something it couldn't be good." Kyle remarked. John nodded in agreement.

"Roberts, you and the others try and find whatever they were after. We'll take care of the remaining Terminators. If they follow basic logic they sent equal numbers to each section so that means there are two more down here with us."

"Yes sir." Roberts replied and motioned for Maxwell and Henderson to follow him. Keeping Killer on a leash they followed the corridor until they reached a large sealed door. For some reason the damage from the laser strike wasn't as bad in this area and the door was relatively untouched.

"So do we go in?" Maxwell asked.

"The captain said to look for whatever those tin cans might be searching for and this could be it. Take up positions." He ordered the other two, who took up positions to cover him. "Down." He ordered Killer who obeyed and lied down. He then took off a panel near the door and yanked out several wires. After cutting the wires he began crossing them and a few attempts later the door slid open. Things immediately began to go wrong as Killer not only started growling but also jumped to his feet and ran inside the room, disobeying Roberts' orders.

"Dumb dog!" Maxwell whispered. Roberts was about to call Killer back when they heard him 'yipe' loudly followed by a wet sounding thunk.

"Cover me!" Roberts said and rushed into the room, plasma rifle ready. Maxwell and Henderson started to follow him in when they heard a gurgling scream followed by another wet thunk, this one louder.

"Roberts?" Henderson asked.

In another part of the complex John, Kyle and Al had found and destroyed the last two Terminators and started back towards the entrance. They had left their radios on to listen in on what the second team was doing. The situation got bad right away and they quickened their pace to assist the other team. Henderson and Maxwell had just entered the room and the next thing they heard was plasma rifle fire followed by intelligible yelling. That yelling was quickly cut off and they could hear the sounds of two more bodies dropping. Now running John and his team got to within sight of the entrance just in time to see someone else approaching from the opposite direction. Between the darkness of the complex and the little sunlight that filtered down from the surface they were unable to see the face. What they could see was someone of average height and build and looked like he was wearing an ISSP uniform. However Mauler was growling at whoever it was and was lunging at them, almost yanking the leash out of Al's hands. Whoever it was didn't say anything, he just raised what looked like a handgun and pointed it at them. Again they dove to the ground to avoid the incoming fire, Al even managed to drag Mauler down in time. The person used the distraction to run up the ramp and to the surface.

"Roberts? What the hell are you doing!?!?" Specs' voice said over the radio. They heard more pistol and plasma rifle fire. "ARRGG!!" Specs yelled. The next thing John's team heard was the sound of the van starting up and roaring out of the area. John and his team ran up the surface and were greeted with the twin sights of the van rushing away at full speed and Specs sitting on the ground being treated by Max.

"Captain, what the hell is going on?" Specs asked when he caught sight of John.

"I was just about to ask you the same question." John replied.

"Damndest thing." Specs answered. "Roberts just comes up and starts towards the van, not saying anything. Then when I tried to stop him, he starts shooting at me. Got me in my good leg to. I didn't want to use my gun but he left me no choice."

"Well at least you didn't kill him." John replied. "Now we have a chance to track him down and get some answers. I take it you got him in the arm? He'll only be able to get so far until…"

"Sir, I didn't shoot him in the arm." Specs interrupted. "I shot him in the chest, three times. There was no way I could have missed, not at this range. This is going to sound crazy but I saw the bolts pass right through him, and he barely even flinched." John looked back into the complex. What had happened down there? Only one way to find out.

"Callahan, Smith! Get over he right now, we've got a situation. Also try and contact the second van, something very weird is going on and I want to know what." He shut off his radio and turned to Specs and Max. "You two going to be all right up here?"

"He'll be fine." Max answered. "There's no serious damage and the bleeding is under control."

"Good. Callahan and Smith should be here in a few minutes so you'll be able to hold the fort. The rest of you follow me." John then led the others back down the ramp and into the complex. Carefully making there way down the corridor Roberts' team had taken they soon came to the door the other team had entered. Mauler began whining but gave no signs of danger so they cautiously entered the room. They immediately saw what Mauler was whining at. No more then ten feet from the door they saw Maxwell, dead. The position of the body told them he had been running for the door and the cause of death seemed to be a large stab wound in the back. That was strange, but what was stranger was that when they turned him over he had an exit wound caused by the same weapon. Whatever type of blade had been used it was a big one, and had a lot of force behind it to go straight through a human body. Looking around they found Killer and Henderson, killed in a similar fashion.

"John. You might want to have a look at this." Al told him. John walked over to where Kyle was and looked where he was pointing his flashlight. There on the floor, stabbed through the chest, was the body of Patrick Roberts.

"That's impossible." Kyle stated. "Specs said it was Roberts who shot him and stole the van. If Roberts is here then who…?"

"I think the word you want to use is what." Al said and pointed his flashlight at something else near Robert's body. It looked like some kind of mold, only this one was large enough to fit a man inside it. It also had a humanoid shape to it. "You two know more then I do. Have any idea what it could have been?" Kyle and John shook their heads.

"No idea." John answered. We need someone who's an expert on this."

"Your bounty hunting friends?" Al asked.

"We don't know where they are." Kyle answered. "And it would take too long to find them. That leaves only one option." John nodded in acknowledgment and got on the radio.

"Has contact been made with the second van yet?" John asked.

"No sir." Smith answered. "All communications and tracking of the vehicle have been disabled. We can't even tell where it is."

"Damn!!" John growled. "Are there any ships in the area?"

"Affirmative sir. There's a supply ship on route to one of the settlements nearby."

"I guess that'll have to do." John replied. "Tell them that this is a police emergency and that we need to commandeer his vehicle."

"He says he can't sir."

"Then tell him that he'll be paid double what he is now just to give us a ride somewhere." Al and Kyle gave John strange looks but John shrugged in response.

"He'll be here in five minutes." Came Smith's reply.

"I kind of figured that." John said and got off the radio. "Kyle and I are going to try to find out what's going on. Al, you're in charge until I get back. Try to find the van if possible but get some backup first. If you can't get any the best thing to do would just to stay here and wait."

"Sir, the supply ship is preparing to land." Smith told them.

"We'll be right there." John answered. "Kyle, give your plasma rifle to Al, we can't risk civilians or the Dragons recovering them. We won't be able to take them through any checkpoints without them being recognized anyway." As John was saying this a thought crossed his mind. Did whoever or whatever that was think the same thing? It seemed to be the only reason he would leave three intact plasma rifles that were his for the taking.

"Supply ship has landed." Smith reported.

"Let's go." John said and headed for the surface, Kyle following.

Doohan's scrap yard: One hour later.

"You listen to me old man! Those parts you sold me were pieces of junk. They failed after a week!! Since they were your parts that means you've gotta replace em!!"

"I told you that they were parts that couldn't put up with the type of punishment you would give them. You treat things like they have no limits they're bound to fail! You pushed them too hard and they failed, it's your own fault." Doohan replied as calmly as he could. He had been arguing with this young punk for the past fifteen minutes and his patience was running out. This hotshot had bought the parts from him a week ago, that was true. Just from the way he had flown in and flown out Doohan could tell that this punk had no respect for his ship, something that made a quick breakdown inevitable.

"I don't care what you think old man. You're gonna replace them and you're gonna replace them now or else!" The punk shouted. Doohan wasn't intimidated by the punk's threats. He had dealt with customers like this before and had no doubt he could knock the guy's block off if it came to that but looking behind the punk in question Doohan got a better idea.

"Sorry but you're going to have to consult our complaints department." Doohan replied.

"Nice try old man. I know there's someone behind me, I heard them. If you think you can scare me off with some dumb muscle you've got another thing coming. I've knocked out guys bigger and stronger then I am before." The punk turned around and actually had to look up at the person behind him. The guy was a giant but nothing the punk hadn't fought in barroom brawls. What made this one different that he was actually carrying what looked like a car engine on each shoulder. _On each shoulder_!! What really scared the punk was that the guy looked like he was doing it with no effort.

"Is there a problem?" The guy asked in a monotone voice.

Uh.. n,n, no problem." The punk stammered. "Just clarifying the few things with your boss."

"Is you business concluded?" The big guy asked. It might not have been a threat but it sure sounded like one.

"Y,yeah. I was just leaving." The punk said and almost tripped over himself running back to his ship. Doohan chuckled at the punk's less then graceful exit.

"Thanks for the help Arnold, he was beginning to get on my nerves."

"No problemo." Arnold replied. In the two months that Arnold had been working here he had proven to be a great help with the business. He had also picked up more human mannerisms from Doohan and Miles but he still acted robotic. Neither of them really cared, Arnold had turned out to be the best thing for this business. He knew practically everything about machines and repairs thanks to his data files and with no need for sleep he could complete a job when Doohan and Miles were too tired to finish. That wasn't to say they let Arnold do all the work, they still did a majority of it, but they turned to Arnold to optimize the work they did and get just that much more out of an engine and the like.

"Take those engines to Miles. He's been looking for new parts for the truck and they should give him what he needs."

"Right." Arnold replied. After taking a few steps towards the workshop he stopped and cocked his ear to one side. "Another craft is approaching." He stated. A few seconds later Doohan could hear it as well.

"I can take care if this. I'll call if you're needed." Doohan told him. Arnold nodded and went into the workshop. A few minutes later a ship that reminded Doohan of a flying dump truck set down but didn't stop its engines. Two people got out of the cab of the vehicle and one of them waved at the pilot, who took off speed away. Both of them were wearing ISSP uniforms and Doohan was able to recognize them. He wondered what John Connor and Kyle Reese would be doing in his neck of the woods, brought by a garbage truck no less.

"You think telling him to send the bill to ISSP was a good idea?" Kyle asked.

"They can afford it." John replied. "After everything we've done it's the least they could do. Hey Doohan!" He shouted in greeting.

"Nice to see you and Kyle again John. So what brings you two here?" Doohan asked, knowing that this wasn't a social visit.

"Something very strange has happened and we need information." John answered


	3. Race to Mars

Chapter 3: Race to Mars

"I take it you want to talk to Arnold." Doohan said as they walked towards the workshop. "You wouldn't have come all the way out here if someone like me could give you the information you need. So what happened?"

"We lost almost half the squad investigating one of Skynet's bases." John answered. "We have no idea what killed them but whatever it was it was able to make itself look exactly like one of the dead men."

"And you think Arnold can tell you what it was?" Doohan asked.

"He does have all the information Cyberdyne's computers had inside that head of his." Kyle said as they entered the workshop. "Our best guess is that whatever that thing was is another experiment the Dragons had going and Skynet managed to finish. If that's the case Arnold might have a way to stop it."

"Let's hope so." Doohan said. "Hey metalhead!!" He shouted across the room, where Arnold and Miles were in the process of disassembling the two engines Arnold had brought in. Being accustomed to being called things like that Arnold stopped what he was doing and looked up. "Got someone who wants to talk to you!"

"Who would want to…?" Miles started as he looked up from his engine. "John? Kyle? What are you guys doing here?"

"Looking for answers." John answered.

"What do you need to know?" Arnold asked. John gave him a rundown of what had happened in the last hour.

"So does it sound like anything Cyberdyne was working on?" John asked when he had finished.

"Yes and no." Arnold replied. "What you have described possibly matches one thing in the Cyberdyne files but there was no work being done on it."

"Well tell us what it is." Kyle said. "Anything you have would be helpful."

"Very well." Arnold answered. "The most likely match is a file labeled as 'Mimetic Polyalloy'. It was to be the next generation of camouflage used by T-800s such as myself. Instead of a biological skin that would be susceptible to the elements and damage it was proposed to coat the endoskeletons in an alloy that would perfectly mimic human features, skin color, facial build, even clothes. In addition it would auto repair if damaged, ensuring an almost limitless timeframe for infiltration."

"How could that even be possible?" John asked. "No metal can heal itself or change colors. Not even the alien metal you're made of."

"This was to be a new type of metal." Arnold answered. "Instead of standard methods it was planned to use advanced nanotechnology to create a fully synthetic metal."

"Nanotechnology?" Miles asked.

"Microscopic machines." Arnold said. "If programmed correctly it is possible for them create the alloy and achieve the effects that I have described to you."

"Can you give us any details on how it's able to do all this?" John asked.

"Yes I could." Arnold replied. "But I do not believe you would be able to understand it. Since you are not scientists it would be too complex for you." John and Kyle were quiet for a minute, surprised at the response Arnold gave them. Before he just would have started explaining the details like he was reading a manual but now he had considered how they would be able to interpret the information.

{Looks like Miles and Doohan did a good job at making him more human.} John thought to himself. Aloud he said "All right, just give us the basics." Arnold nodded before replying, another human mannerism he had picked up.

"By rearranging its molecules the alloy is able to shift its structure to match the needs of the situation. If damaged it will heal itself and it has been theorized that hard, edged weapons could be created from it."

"You said that Cyberdyne wasn't working on this mimy mitic….." Kyle stopped in mid-sentence and tried to think of a different, easier, way to refer to this new stuff. "This liquid metal. Why not? It sounds like it would be a hell of a weapon." In his mind the only way he could see metal 'shifting' was if it was melted and then poured into a different position.

"Nanotechnology was in its earliest stages when this was conceived. It was decided that the trial and error way of creating this metal would take decades even with the best computers and equipment. The chances of perfecting this metal even within the projected time period was calculated as being almost zero so the project was abandoned."

"But the plans stayed in their files, even after the gate disaster. They had it all the time and they didn't know it." John said to himself. "Arnold, assuming the right equipment was available, how long would it take for a computer of Skynet's capabilities to make this type of metal?" Arnold remained silent as he did the calculations.

"Factoring in all parameters it would take at minimum two days and at maximum a week."

"Damn!!" John shouted. That was within the time frame that Skynet had existed as a sentient being.

"I don't get it." Miles spoke up. "According to Arnold this thing is just another Terminator, only with a fancier skin. If you guys can find it you'll be able to take care of it." John, Kyle Doohan, even Arnold were frowning. "What?"

"Miles, weren't you listening when I explained what happened?" John almost growled.

"Yeah, the shots went right through him. That means they just missed something vital. Next time all you need to is get a head shot and that's it." Miles answered. Doohan slapped him in the back of the head, knocking his hat off. "What?!?"

"What you are suggesting will not work." Arnold stated.

"Why not?!?" Miles demanded. "All you got to do is aim for something vital and…"

"This isn't just another Terminator Miles." Kyle interrupted. "When we saw it we couldn't see any difference between it or Roberts. Not its clothes, its face, not even its size."

"I met the guy before that big dustup in the mountains." Doohan added. "He might not be small but he's nowhere near as big as Arnold. If it is that stuff covering a new robot it's got to be a damn small skeleton."

"But with the information I have been given the most logical explanation is that what John and Kyle have seen was nothing more then liquid metal. There will be nothing vital to hit."

"I was hoping you wouldn't say that." John said and took out his radio.

"Wait a minute. How can a pile of goo just get up and walk around?" Miles asked.

"The same way a supercomputer can turn genocidal." John remarked. After adjusting the frequency on his a little he was rewarded with a burst of static and what sounded like words. "Can anyone hear me? This is John Connor trying to reach…"

"I hear you John." Al's voice answered over the static. Apparently their radios weren't built to handle these kinds of ranges. "Though I don't know for how long. There's asteroid interference in this sector and it's going to get worse."

"Then I'll keep it short." John replied. "Have you found whatever it was we saw in the compound?"

"No sir but we did find the van, abandoned about fifty miles out. There was no sign of that thing but we did find something on the computers that you should know about."

"What was it trying to hack into?" John asked, expecting the worst.

"It didn't hack anything." Al replied. "It was running a search on ship registrations and the last known gate transactions." Al paused to lighten the bombshell John prayed he was wrong about. "He ran a search for the Bebop. According to the data on the screen right now they're on Mars."

"Shit." John said quietly.

"We'll be ready to leave in ten minutes." Al said, almost reading John's thoughts.

"No." John responded.

"Sir?" Al asked, not understanding.

"You and the others are staying here. Three people are less conspicuous then eight and we'll move faster that way. Go back to where we found that thing and try to find out more about it."

"We already did." Al responded. "After loosing it we went back to the room where it killed Roberts and the others and managed to find a some kind of analysis computer that was hooked up to that mold. Most of the stuff was just technobabble but one thing kept on coming up, T-1000. That mean anything to you?"

"Just that our killer has a name." John mumbled to himself.

"What was that sir? I didn't quite hear you." Al said.

"Nothing." John replied. "Keep at that computer and try to find something important. If you do contact us immediately."

"Yes sir." Al responded and signed off. John shut off his own radio and turned to Doohan.

"Arnold is coming with us, no arguments. It'll take a Terminator to fight another one and he's the best chance we have at destroying that thing. Where's your radio?" He asked.

"In the office." Doohan replied and before he could say anything else John ran towards the office. When the others caught up with him he was already trying to contact someone.

"This is captain John Connor, squad leader TC 190, calling Earth division HQ. Come in HQ."

"This is Earth Division HQ. Go ahead Connor." Someone answered.

"Thank god. HQ there's a situation down here and I need to get a message out ASAP."

"What division of ISSP?" The voice asked.

"Not ISSP. This message needs to be sent to a civilian ship that is in serious dan.."

"Sorry captain but no can do." The voice interrupted.

"What do you mean 'no can do'?!?!" John shouted.

"Orders from above are that you not make any transmissions to the civilian population unless it is to family or approved in advance by ISSP command."

"And just who the hell thought that up!?!?" John yelled.

"Do to the sensitive nature of you operations no unauthorized transmissions to civilians. To do so could jeopardize security of…."

"What security?!? Everybody knows what we're doing down here you JACKASS!!!"

"Your Earth operations have been declared classified." The voice stated bluntly, as if that explained everything. "I can have you message sent through after it's gone through proper channels."

"PROPER CHANNELS?!? That could take hours!! This is an emergency you asshole!!!"

"I'm sorry captain but protocols must be observed. If it is of ISSP or government concern I can put you through right away." The voice answered. John couldn't believe it. This was a new low, even for ISSP.

"Why don't you tell them they need to spend less time on their asses and more time in the trenches!!!" John shouted and snapped the radio off, almost wrenching the knob off in the process. He now had an even greater hatred for bureaucracy and the cowards that were pulling the strings.

"So what do we do now?" Kyle asked. John looked over at Doohan

"That antique you flew out to the Bebop still working?" He asked.

ISSP Earth Headquarters

"What the hell was that about?" The cop manning the desk asked.

"Don't know." The radio operator answered. "Guess he's been out in the sun too long." The desk cop shrugged and turned back to the other ISSP officer he was helping.

"You were saying something about needing to find a suspect?"

"That's right." The second officer answered. "I've been tracking this fugitive for some time now and I've always lost him at the last minute. His last known whereabouts were here on Earth but I've received information that he is now on Mars. My ship was recently damaged by a stray asteroid and there's a good chance I'll lose him again if I wait for it to be repaired. I need transport to Mars as soon as possible." The desk cop flipped through some papers before coming up with something.

"We got a prisoner transport that's leaving in about fifteen minutes. You can hitch a ride with them if you want."

"That'll be just fine." The first cop replied.

"All right. Just let me have your name for the log and you'll be all set."

"Roberts." The first cop replied. "Patrick Roberts." The desk cop thought that name sounded familiar but when he couldn't place it right away just pushed it out of his mind. After writing something down he answered Roberts.

"All taken care of. Just wait at the…." He looked up and saw Roberts was already on his way out. "landing area. Asshole." He said and went back to work.

On approach to ISSP Earth Headquarters: One hour later

"Now you're sure you don't want us to go with you?" Doohan asked John as he steered the helicopter in for a landing. Miles was in the navigator's seat and John stood behind them.

"Positive." He answered. "No offence Doohan but it looks like this is one machine that is beyond even your expertise."

"You give me enough time and a powerful enough microscope, I'll show you a thing or two sonny." Doohan replied.

"We're not trying to study it Doohan we're trying to destroy it." Kyle yelled from the back.

"Any suggestions on that Arnold? Any weaknesses of this thing we can exploit?" John asked. Arnold shook his head.

"I do not know. All data concerning the properties of the perfected form of this metal were strictly guesswork. Any strengths or weaknesses would be theoretical, and based on the old data such theories would very unreliable, at best."

"I guess we'll just have to play it by ear then." John replied as the chopper began to set down. "Thanks for the ride Doohan. We owe you one."

"You owe me more then that but if you manage to get Arnold back in one piece we'll call it even. I don't want to lose my best mechanic."

"You got it." John said as they went down the ramp. As soon as they were out of the chopper's backwash Doohan lifted off and headed back towards his place. John, Kyle and Arnold headed for the main building. When they stepped inside the cop manning the desk looked up.

"You two bringing in a prisoner or a new recruit?" The desk cop asked. Arnold was still in his work clothes and he didn't look like someone would walk into a police station willingly.

"We need transport to Mars, right away." John said, ignoring the desk cop's question.

"Wait a minute." The desk cop said, recognizing John's voice. "You're that guy that was on the radio before. The one that thought regulations didn't apply to him."

"That's me." John replied, resisting the urge to deck the guy. "And because those idiotic regulations say that I can't contact anyone I figured we could just borrow a ship and meet them in person."

"Nice try captain but paper work to get a ship would take just as long as transmission approval. Besides, I've already let one unauthorized cop hitch a ride and that was my good deed for the day."

"Who was he?" Kyle asked, suddenly very suspicious. The desk cop shrugged and went back to shuffling papers.

"Some guy named Roberts. Said he had some fugitive on Mars to catch. If you had been here an hour ago and told me you were with him I might have let…URK!!!" Before the desk cop could finish John grabbed him by his uniform collar with both hands and hauled him up to eye level.

"I'm only going to say this once you arrogant little bastard so listen up!" John growled. "Who you let through wasn't a cop and he's not trying to capture some fugitive. He's already killed three officers and is going to try and kill some very good friends of ours!" To further convince the desk cop to help them he took out his gun and practically shoved the barrel up the guy's nose. "Now you had better find us a ship before…."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you captain." A new voice said. John turned to see several other officers had entered the room, all of them with their guns drawn. The apparent leader of the group, another captain, motioned at Kyle and Arnold. "Now let's just calm down and try to figure things out."

"What took you guys so long?!" A voice that John recognized as the radio operator asked. Looking past the now shaking desk cop he saw the radio operator at his station, that now had a flashing red light on it. The little weasel had set off a silent alarm.

"I'm sure there has to be a better way to resolve this thing Connor." The captain said, ignoring the radio operator. Knowing they didn't have time for this John looked around and an idea came to him.

"What's behind that wall?" John asked, nodding towards the wall in the back of the room.

"A briefing room. Why?" The captain asked.

"Is there anyone in there?" John asked.

"No…." The captain answered.

"Good." John said right before he pulled the desk cop form behind the desk and threw him to the ground, gun still in his face. "Arnold, pick up that desk and throw it through the back wall." He ordered, backing away to give the robot some room. Arnold said nothing and headed towards the desk.

"Hold it!!!" The captain shouted and all the guns in the room were trained on Arnold. Ignoring them Arnold walked up to the desk and proceeded to pick it up despite the fact that it weighed a couple of hundred pounds and it was bolted to the floor. The bolts snapped like cheap plastic and Arnold hefted the desk over his head like it was made of cardboard. The cops in the room, the captain included, were now watching in stunned amazement. John and Kyle just watched, not looking surprised in the least. Shifting his stance to get the best throwing angle Arnold took aim.

"Duck." He ordered the radio operator, who immediately complied and hit the floor. With what almost looked like a light heave Arnold sent the desk flying and it crashed through the wall into the briefing room.

"Now about that ship…" John said to break the stunned silence. The first thing he heard wasn't a vocal response but the clatter of over a dozen handguns being dropped almost simultaneously.

"W, whatever you want." The captain stuttered.

"Nice that you feel that way." Kyle said. "Because we're going to need more then a ship. We'll need weapons, something powerful and concealable, and civilian clothes."

"You got it." The captain said.

"Last and most important. You're not going to tell anyone about us. That would make him upset." Kyle said, motioning to Arnold. The captain looked at Arnold, gulped nervously, and nodded. "Then let's get moving."

Getting new weapons wasn't that difficult. All three of them got weapons that were confiscated from the prisoners that had just been transferred, a failed gang of bank robbers. The Calico submachine guns John and Kyle took at first glance looked like just a couple of fancy pistols. True they shot 9mm pistol ammunition but with hundred round magazines and a firing rate of over 700 rounds per minute it made up for it's lack of power with the sheer volume of lead it could throw. Arnold got the robber's heavy artillery. The USAS-12 was a gun designed specifically for the military to create a high body count. A semiautomatic shotgun that was feed from 20 round drum magazines, just one of them firing would make a person think they were up against a squad, not some lone nut. The downside was that this thing was something someone couldn't just walk around with and expect no one to notice, it was a large gun. That problem had been solved by the robbers themselves, ironically. They had designed a long, lightweight metal suitcase whose handle was in fact the carrying handle of the gun itself. When the time came the carrier would just have to press a hidden button with his thumb, the case would fall away, and the unsuspecting victims were in for a world of hurt.

Clothes were another matter. John and Kyle had no problems, they just took what they wanted from the evidence office and found things easily. John was now wearing a gray sweatshirt and a blue pair of jeans while Kyle took a black shirt and a second pair of jeans. Both took oversized jackets, brown and black respectively, that the robbers had used to hide their weapons. As a bonus the jackets had pockets on the inside that would be able to hold spare clips for their guns. They couldn't wear their gunbelts or body armor, that would give them away, so those had to be left behind, but they would be able to take their radios with them. Arnold was a different matter. The only clothes that would fit him belonged to a member of a gang of badland bandits. John thought it made Arnold look like a member one of those biker gangs you always saw in the movies. Finally he took a brown overcoat that would allow him to carry extra magazines for his own weapon.

It took them ten minutes to get ready, and twenty for the ship to show up. Those twenty minutes were some of the longest for both sides. John and Kyle because the T-1000 was getting farther away with each passing second, the other cops because there was a giant armed with a large gun that would shoot them dead if John ordered him to. The sooner this group left the better. When the ship did arrive they saw it was a prisoner transport just like the one that had left an hour earlier. John really didn't care what kind of a ship it was, so long as it could get them to Mars in one piece it was fine.

"So you three ready to go?" The pilot asked when they got on board.

"All except for one thing." John said.

"What's that?" The pilot asked.

Outside the other cops waited to see them leave if for no other reason then to make sure they _were_ gone. They got one last surprise when the pilot of the ship came flying out the back of it, looking like he had been tossed. Before the pilot even had a chance to figure out what happened the ship's engine roared to life and it took off. Inside the ship John piloted while Kyle was destroying every way that the ship could be tracked with. They got to the gate with no problems and when John gave a police override code, using a different name and badge number, they were let through without question. They were on their way to Mars, but the T-1000 already had a huge lead.

Mars gate: Twelve hours later

Even before the ISSP ship dropped out of hyperspace the T-1000 already knew what it was going to do. The ship didn't go to the planet itself but docked at an orbiting ISSP station. It didn't matter to the T-1000, time meant nothing to it. If it failed to catch the ship he would simply follow it again until he finally did. But for some reason if his target got away….

"You all right buddy?" The question had been asked by the ISSP pilot.

"I'm fine." The T-1000 answered in a neutral tone.

"Funny. A second ago you looked ready to punch a hole in the wall." The pilot replied.

"I guess I'm just frustrated by not being able to catch this guy." The T-1000 said. "Mind if I use your radio for a second? I need to check in."

"Go ahead. Paperwork is going to be a bitch anyway." The pilot replied and left. Once he had left the T-1000 closed and sealed the cockpit door, then turned on the ship's computer. Logging into the ISSP databanks he quickly confirmed that the Bebop was still in Mars orbit. That task done the next thing he did was to find out what frequencies the Bebop used for it's communications. Once he got those as well he started typing very rapidly, creating a complex computer program in the space of only a few minutes. After making sure the program would work flawlessly he activated it and then proceeded to his next task. Now sure of transmission security he flipped on the radio but deliberately made the video portion nothing but a mess of static. The first few attempts at contact yielded no reply but on the fourth try someone on the other end finally picked up.

"Wadda ya want!?!" A tired and grumpy sounding voice asked.

"Is that you Spike?" The T-1000 asked in a perfect imitation of John Connor's voice.

"Ya it is. Who want's ta know?" Spike answered, still not completely awake.

"What, you don't recognize who I am?" The T-1000 replied in a tone that most humans would consider humorous.

"John? What are you calling for?" Spike asked, finally awake. "And why can't I see you?"

"With what I'm calling on you're lucky you can even hear me." The T-1000 answered. "I finally managed to get off assignment for a while and figured I'd drop by for a visit."

"That's a surprise." Spike said. "From what we heard it sounded like you were never going to get off Earth."

"Well unexpected things come up and I was actually able to get some free time."

"I'm sure Ed and Faye will be thrilled to hear it." Spike remarked.

"Are they there now?" The T-1000 asked.

"No. I'm the only one on the ship right now." In the background there was the sound of a dog barking. "Make that me and the mutt." The barking got louder and more rapid. "Shut up you dumb dog!! I'm trying to talk here!!"

"Where are they?" The T-1000 asked, ignoring the shouting match between Spike and Ein.

"Faye's at a casino. (So what else is new.) And Ed went to Mars with Jet to visit a friend. Said something about wanting to have a closer look at Mars, something about red dirt. I don't know, I can't figure that kid out."

"Funny you should mention that because this ship they have me on will have to land on Mars soon and I might be able to meet them down there. Just give me the name of the friend and what city they're in."

"Trying to make sure you don't lose your tracking edge huh?" Spike asked but gave the information. "So when can we expect to see you?"

"Soon. Very soon." The T-1000 answered and closed the connection. On the Bebop Spike gave his communicator a funny look and put it down. He had been taking a nap on the couch when he had been rudely awakened by John's call. A loud whine at his feet made him look down at Ein. Ever since the mutt had walked into the room and heard John he had been acting funny. Barking loudly not quite in alarm, but more like in confusion.

"So he sounded a little weird." Spike told the dog. He didn't need Ein's level of hearing to notice there was something different in the way John talked. "You work almost non stop for two months and let's see how you sound. Even I would act a bit abnormal." Ein let out a snort that seemed to say '_You act normal to begin with_?' Not amused at Ein's 'remark' Spike acted as he usually would with an annoyance. Picking up the nearest thing possible, an old magazine lying on the table, and motioned to throw it at said annoyance, Ein. Knowing full well that Spike would do it and how good his aim was Ein showed just how smart he was by sprinting out of the room. Chuckling Spike laid back down on the couch to finish his nap.

Back at the ISSP station the T-1000 had plotted a course for the ship and was busy with a when he heard a banging the cockpit door.

"Come on pal open up! You want to make a private call use your own phone not my ship!" The T-1000 ignored him and began to start up the ship's engines. "HEY!!!" Opening the door using an override code the pilot walked in and up the T-1000. "Now just what the hell you think you're doing!?!"

CRACK

The pilot didn't even have time to feel the gun being shoved into his stomach before he was lying on the floor with a bullet wound in his stomach.

"Leaving." The T-1000 answered in his regular voice and took off, heading for Mars.

Mars gate: One hour later

"John, if Doohan knew what you did to this thing he'd probably shoot you." Kyle remarked as they dropped out of hyperspace. The whole trip John had kept the engines going full power, stretching them to their breaking point. Even now they sounded like they were on the verge of exploding.

"We managed to make up a lot of time so I don't want to hear any complaining." John retorted. It was true, they had cut the lead the T-1000 had to roughly an hour by Arnold's calculations. Of course that would mean nothing if the T-1000 had found them already so John activated the radio and tried to contact the Bebop. "Come on. Pick up." John urged, hoping that they weren't too late. Somebody did answer and the face of a slightly rumpled Spike Spiegel filled the screen.

"Damn it!! Is it a crime for a guy to get some sleep on his day off!?!?!?!" He yelled at the top of his lungs. This was the second time he had been woken up and he was not amused. When he turned on his communicator he was surprised to see who was on the other end. "John, if this is some kind of a joke it isn't funny. If you had visual the first time why didn't you use it?"

"The first time?" John asked.

"Yes the first time." Spike retorted, thinking John was playing dumb. "When you said you could only use audio and kept asking were everyone was. Why are you calling again anyway? I already told you where Ed and Jet are and you should be there by now."

"No you didn't." John replied.

"What do you mean I didn't?" Spike asked. It sounded like it was part of the joke but the way John had said that told Spike he was dead serious.

"Spike you didn't tell me anything. We just got through the gate a few minutes ago."

"That's impossible. You called over an hour ago and were almost here."

"Spike, that wasn't me." Now he had Spike's attention. If it were anyone else Spike wouldn't have believed it. But there was one reason that would make sense. It would explain how John had seemed to talk to him twice but not the first time, and why he would be this far out in the first place.

"It was a Terminator, wasn't it?" Spike asked. John nodded. "Shit." Spike didn't think that they would have been able to get off Earth, but he guessed this proved him wrong. At least they knew how to identify and destroy those machines now so he would be able to…

"It's a new type. One we haven't seen before." John said. Well that was something Spike wasn't expecting to hear.

"What do you mean new type? How's it different, and who the hell built it?" If there was one thing Spike and the others had learned fighting Skynet it was that every new machine or robot was ten times worse then the ones they already knew about.

"We don't have time to explain right now." John said. "Where did you send 'me' the first time?" Spike told him and John nodded. "At least we caught a break. A city that size makes finding any one person almost impossible. Have you had contact with any of the others recently?"

"The only person I've talked to in the past couple of hours is you." Spike replied.

"You'd better call them back up here. That way we can get everyone up to speed and concentrating on how to stop this thing." Spike didn't say anything and tired to open a channel to the others. What he got was a high pitched shrieking noise, causing everyone, even Arnold, to cover their ears.

"What the hell kind of interference is that?!" Kyle said.

"Interference my ass, we're being jammed!!!" Spike shouted.

"The son of a bitch was ready for us!! I don't believe it!!" Kyle yelled.

"Believe it!" John shouted in response. "Spike we're going after that thing. You find Faye and bring her back to the ship. Knock her out if you have to but get her back there." Willing to trust John's judgment in the matter Spike ran for the hangar without question. John steered the ship towards Mars and the city Spike had mentioned, hoping that the T-1000 hadn't found them yet.


	4. The Chase

Chapter 4: The Chase

Somewhere on Mars:

A city of this size contained a population of millions. So many people that even the strangest looking of them were regarded with an almost casual indifference. With a basic attitude like this what chance did one very ordinary looking policeman have of looking out of place? So far it had been zero. For an hour the T-1000 had been walking the streets, questioning various people about the whereabouts of Jet Black, Radical Edward, and the friend they had been visiting, a young woman by the name of Meifa. So far no one had questioned him and his intentions. These humans were fooled just as easily as the ones at the spaceport.

Mars Spaceport: One hour ago

"Prison transport zero one nine you are not cleared for landing. Return to cruising altitude and maintain holding pattern until..."

"You've got to let me land now!!!" A panicked voice yelled. "He's gone crazy and I don't know how much longer the door will hold!!!" The air traffic controller saw that the transport made no effort to veer off its present course and it did sound like there was an emergency.

"Security teams one and four to landing pad six, possible hijack attempt in progress. Proceed with extreme caution." The armed security teams ran out to the pad just in time to see the craft come to a wobbly but controlled landing. They were about to try to contact the pilot again when they heard gunshots and the sound of glass shattering. Looking towards the source of the noise they saw the pilot jumping from the shot out cockpit window onto the ground. As two security members rushed over to him they saw that he was bleeding from the head.

"He killed all the others!!" The pilot yelled, sounding close to hysterics. "I don't know how he got that knife on board!!! It wasn't my fault!!!"

"Easy there buddy." One of the security team told him. "We'll find out whose fault it was after this is over." He turned to another member of the security team. "Take him inside for questioning, we'll deal with this."

"Yes sir." The second team member answered. "Come on pal, let's see if you can help us sort this thing out." He said, taking the gun from the panicked ISSP pilot and leading him into the main building as the rest of the security team began to move in on the craft.

"Come on this wasn't my fault." The pilot complained as he was escorted into the office area of the spaceport.

"That's for ISSP to decide once they get your statement." The security guard said.

"Why not just take it here?" The pilot asked as they walked down a long hallway to the interrogation room. "With all these cameras…"

"There are no cameras in this area." The security guard answered. "Since criminals are supposed to have '_basic rights'_ the only cameras we're allowed to use are during interrogation."

"So that means that the only camera that can see anything is in that room?" The pilot asked, sounding a lot calmer then he had been just a second ago.

"That's right."

"Good to know." The pilot said. Before the security guard could ask what that meant the pilot grabbed him and punched him in the stomach. Or at least that was what the guard thought had happened. What he felt couldn't have been just a punch, the pain seemed to go right through him. As the guard tried to figure out what was happening the pilot pulled his hand away and the pain intensified a thousand fold. He also noticed that blood was coming from his stomach. Unable to control his body the guard fell onto his back, looking up at the pilot who looked down at him with cold indifference. As he began to feel life slip away the guard saw something that shouldn't be possible. The blood on the pilot's head seemed to run back up to the source and disappear. At the same time the pilot's face and body began to shift and in seconds the guard was looking up at himself. The last thing the guard saw was 'himself' reaching down and taking back the gun he had taken from the 'pilot' before and his spare clips of ammunition.

A few minutes later the door leading to the office section opened and the security guard stepped out, without the pilot.

"Finished already Jerry?" Another security guard asked.

"The guy was babbling so I had to lock him in a closet." Jerry replied. The second security guard laughed, apparently not surprised. "Have they gotten into the ship yet?"

"Not yet. Whoever tried to take it over knew his stuff. Changed the access codes and they haven't been able to break them yet."

"Interesting." Jerry said. "Well I'm going to give our friend a chance to calm down and since they don't need me outside.."

"Go ahead and take a break." The second security guard said. "It looks like it'll be a while before they get into the ship and our jumpy pilot isn't going anywhere anytime soon."

"No, I guess he isn't." Jerry replied and walked off. As soon as he left the spaceport and was out of camera range 'Jerry' walked behind a building and a second later a completely new person walked out on the other side. He then began to head for the heart of the city, never looking back once.

It was another ten minutes before it was discovered something was wrong. After finally breaking the new code to get into the prison transport the guards were surprised to find that no one was in the rear section of the craft. According to the pilot there should be someone back here, at least a dead body. Getting into the cockpit turned out to be easier, it wasn't even locked. When they entered they got a bigger surprise then the empty back section.

"Isn't he the same guy who jumped out the window?" One of them asked, pointing to the body that looked exactly like the person that had been taken into the spaceport. Wanting answers the team leader tried to contact Jerry but got no response. Deciding that they needed to talk to the apparently fake pilot they went to where he had been taken but when they got there all they found was Jerry's body, stabbed clean through. The spaceport went into lockdown in a desperate attempt to find whoever had been responsible for killing two people under their noses. Surveillance footage showed someone who looked like Jerry leaving the Spaceport but it was decided that there had to be more then one of them so police on the outside weren't warned, it was their problem now. It wouldn't have mattered anyway.

An hour later the chaos at that spaceport had caused another ISSP craft to be diverted to another one on the other side of the city. It wasn't stated what exactly had caused the emergency but when what was known was that it involved an ISSP prison transport it wasn't hard for those in the second transport to guess who was behind it.

"Looks like there're bigger things in the news now then us." Kyle remarked as they entered the city. The police override code had worked again and they got through customs with no problem. That had surprised all of them, well maybe not Arnold. Despite the fact that their faces had been all over the news a few months ago nobody gave them a second glance.

"That's actually a good thing." John answered. "Now we can look without inadvertently tipping off the T-1000."

"Where do we begin?" Arnold asked. It was a good question. If they stayed in one group they would lessen their chances of finding Jet or Ed. On the other hand if they split up they wouldn't have enough firepower to deal with the T-1000 if one of them ran into it. Hell, they probably didn't have enough firepower _now_ to deal with the T-1000 if Arnold was right.

"We'll split up but we won't put any more then two blocks distance between us." John said, deciding that finding the others took priority. "That way we can maximize our search but still able to help each other if something happens. Keep in radio contact at all times and if one of us finds Jet, Ed and their friend we quietly make our way back to the ship and then to the Bebop. Now this thing can imitate people so if we run into just Ed or Jet we're going to have to make sure that they're the real deal. Ask them what two people Kyle and I gave our medals to. That's something only they would know and if they don't, start shooting. Arnold since you don't know we gave them to Ed and Ein." Arnold nodded in understanding.

"And what of Meifa?" Arnold asked. "I will be able to tell if she is human or not through infrared scan. That is not an option for the two of you and we have no knowledge with which to test her."

"He's got a point." John agreed. "We don't know anything and I don't want to have to do something like cut her to see if she bleeds."

"Actually we do know something." Kyle stated. "After you guys sent me back to the Bebop I really couldn't do anything but lie on the couch so to keep from being bored out of my skull I asked Ed to tell me about the bounty hunts they had been on. One of those stories had to do with Meifa when they helped her search for her father. She said that they eventually found him in hyperspace, inside one of the tunnel's walls. That sounds impossible but it's true. We should ask her where they found her father. It'll be a little hard on her but it's something the T-1000 won't know."

"Now that we've got that settled let's get moving. We have a lot of ground to cover." John said and the three of them walked in different directions.

Several blocks away the T-1000 continued it's own search, and unknown to either of the search parties their quarry was right in the middle.

Of course Jet, Ed and Meifa had no idea what was going on. For the past couple of hours they had been walking around the city and catching up. Most of the conversation had been about Jet and Ed's involvement in the battle against Skynet. Jet wasn't worried about anyone overhearing them, most people wouldn't believe it and the rest wouldn't care. Unlike most people Meifa was listening intently to every word.

"It was frightening to see how human those machines acted." Meifa said, referring to the Terminators. "They acted like they were alive when they weren't."

"That's what they were designed to do." Jet answered. "From what we saw the longer one of them was around people the more they learned to act like us."

"You mean Arnold?" Meifa asked. Jet nodded, he had told her about the Terminator Ed had made into their 'friend'. "It still seems wrong Jet." Jet tried to think of an answer for that one. They had gone over this before. While Meifa didn't believe that Arnold was evil he 'went against the balance' as she had put it. Universal Feng Shui depends on a balance of the Chi of Heaven, Earth, and all living things. The actions of the nonliving, like Skynet and its machines, disturbed that balance. To someone as sensitive to Feng Shui as Meifa if something that wasn't alive, that didn't have a soul, could influence things of its own free will, it was something to be concerned about.

"Nothing wrong with Arnold!" Ed declared. "Ed fixed him so that means he works perfectly. Everything that is broken Ed can fix." Meifa couldn't help but smile at Ed's words, as confusing as they were. Her smile broadened as Ed then took off down the street. "Bet Ed can beat you where we're going!!" She shouted.

"Kids." Jet groaned. Though Ed had been behaving relatively well she had decided that it would be fun to race Jet and Meifa to the various places they were going. Unfortunately for the other two Ed sometimes walked with them to the places and others bolted off for apparently no reason. It looked like she was going to do it again but instead of going straight and crossing the street, like she should have, she turned around a corner and disappeared, onto a very busy street. "She's doing this to annoy me I just know it. Keep going and we'll meet you there. This shouldn't take long." He told Meifa and started to run after Ed. Meifa watched Jet turn the corner and began walking herself when she felt something. It was like the time she had encountered the Predator, something felt wrong but she didn't know what it was. That feeling suddenly got stronger and she looked in the direction it seemed to be coming from. She saw someone turn the corner on the opposite side of the intersection ahead of her, out of the heavy foot traffic and onto the side street she was on. Now she was frightened. Her eyes saw a normal looking man wearing a police uniform, but there was no presence of Chi, absolutely nothing. She began to cautiously step backwards, never taking her eyes off the, thing. She was trying to think of what to do when the thing noticed her. One hand went to his gun while he pointed at her with the other.

"You! Stop!!" He ordered. Panicking Meifa did the first thing that came to mind, she turned and ran. The she had gotten only a few paces away when she heard the crack of gunfire and felt things whizzing past her legs.

The T-1000 had been searching the city in a grid pattern and so far that search had yielded few results. Several of the people he had talked to did know Meifa but had not seen her lately, or the two people she was supposed to be with. Continuing on his search he had turned onto one of the many side streets of the city, not knowing that two of the three people he had been looking for had just disappeared into the crowd in front of him. Ed was too small to bee seen and it wasn't easy to recognize someone from the back of their heads. However after taking a few steps he did notice the third person he was looking for. After a quick search on the prison transport's computers he had found Meifa's picture in a file that had dealt with her father, a syndicate consultant. What the T-1000 wasn't expecting was that she also saw him, and the look of fear on her face. Why would she be afraid? She had no criminal record so she did not have anything to fear from the police. If she had been somehow been warned about him she would not be out in the street, she would be hiding. Regardless of the cause her body language indicated she was ready to run so the T-1000 decided to deal with this like a human policeman would. He told the human not to move but it fled. Though he was much faster then any human he did not know the territory as well as she would. Since he needed her alive for questioning he drew his pistol and fired at her legs, trying to incapacitate but not kill.

Meifa ran as hard as she could. She didn't know just what that thing was or why it was after her but she knew she had to get away from it. She didn't have time to consult her luo-pan to find the best escape route so she had to do it by pure instinct. To try to escape it she ran into an alley that she knew led back to the main street. There she would be able to hide in the crowd and find Jet. As she ran she looked back to see if the thing was still following her so she didn't see that someone was walking down the alley towards her. She was so concerned on her pursuer that she didn't even turn around to see where she was going until she was halfway down the alley. When she did turn to look she found herself looking at something else that had no Chi. A giant that was carrying a large metal case and had the same dead expression that the one behind her had. She tried to stop but her foot slipped out from under her and she fell to the ground. The giant's expression remained blank as his metal case fell apart, revealing a very large gun. Time seemed to slow down as the giant grabbed the grip of the weapon with his other hand and began to point it in her direction. Panic again setting in Meifa tried to scramble to her feet and run back the other way but when she turned around she saw the first thing closing in, still aiming his handgun at her.

"Down!" She heard the giant shout from behind her. Still unsure of what was going on she did as she was told and threw herself face first to the ground. Though scared she kept her eyes open and watched the smaller of the two things approach. She heard a roar from behind her and saw a large hole suddenly appear in the chest of the first thing. The thing flinched but it did not fall, nor was there any blood. Instead the wound looked like a hole that had been punched through soft metal. Meifa didn't have much time to focus on this strange sight as another hole appeared, followed by a third, then a fourth. Each time the roar of the weapon got louder as it seemed to be coming closer. Finally a fifth shot knocked the thing down. Meifa turned to see what the giant was doing and to her surprise saw that he was standing over her. He still had the massive weapon pointed at the other thing but he was looking down at her and holding out his other hand.

Arnold had been the first to spot trouble. As he was walking down the street of one of the blocks assigned to him, against heavy flow of people in the opposite direction, he saw Ed come running out of one of the side streets followed closely by Jet. As he radioed John and Kyle that he had found them he also saw the T-1000 turn into the same street that Jet and Ed had just come out of. He calculated an eighty percent chance that their traveling companion, Meifa, was still in that side street and since the mission was to find all three of them he needed to investigate. He radioed his intentions to the others, and following a map of the city from his memory banks, entered an alley that led to the side street. He heard gunfire that was identified as an ISSP service weapon and a second later he saw a young, dark-haired female human running down the alley towards him. She was looking behind her and seemed unaware of his presence. She looked ahead and when she saw him she tried to stop and fell to the ground. Behind her he could see the T-1000 entering the alley and pointing its weapon at her. In response he deployed his own weapon and prepared to engage. The human started to get up but listened when he told her to stay down. It took several shots to down the other Terminator and according to the data that had been gathered it would not stay that way for long. The human was frightened, did not know what was going on and had never encountered a Terminator before. Arnold did not have time to give her an explanation or try to convince her that he was there to help. Keeping his weapon trained on the T-1000, which was still moving, he offered the human his other hand to help her up.

"Come with me if you want to live." He told her. It was a statement that required a fast decision and though the human looked surprised she grabbed his hand and he helped her to her feet.

At that same time: not too far away.

"Can't catch Ed!" Ed told Jet as she waited for him to come and get her.

"This isn't funny anymore Ed!" Jet shouted back. Ed seemed to think the opposite and laughing turned around to run off again. She got half a step before running into someone who wasn't there a second ago. As she looked up she saw that the clothes were unfamiliar but she instantly recognized the face.

"John person came to visit Ed!" She shouted and was about to give him a hug when she saw the look on his face. "John person not happy to see Ed?" She asked.

"I am but it's very dangerous and..." He looked up and saw Jet approaching.

"John? What are you doing here? I thought you were still on Earth." Jet said. "What's wrong?" He had no problem recognizing the look on John's face.

"I'll have to tell you later. Right now we need to get you two back to the Bebop." John said. Jet was about to ask about Meifa when he heard the crack of gunfire coming from the same side street that they had left her on. Without thinking Jet got out his gun and was about to run back to Meifa when John grabbed his shoulder. "Not that way." John said and took out a pistol with a high capacity magazine that definitely wasn't standard issue. He motioned for them to follow him and as they started moving another more powerful sounding weapon started firing in response to the first. A majority of the people on the street, who were curious and stopped to see what was causing all the racket, now started to run when they heard something that sounded like a cannon.

"What do you mean not that way?!" Jet demanded.

"Don't worry, that's Arnold protecting your friend." John told him as he turned on his radio. "What's the situation Arnold?"

"She is unharmed." Arnold replied. "We are moving to meet you, T-1000 is still in pursuit." He added onto his sentence with several more shotgun blasts.

"You two get back to the Bebop, we'll handle this and meet you there." John said and flicked off the safety of his weapon.

"Handle what!? John what aren't you telling us!?" Jet demanded.

"Jet!!" They heard Meifa yell and saw her running up to them. Behind her Arnold was still shooting at something and backing out of an alley. Whatever Arnold was shooting at was still shooting back as they heard the sharp cracks of a handgun mixed in with the booming report of Arnold's weapon.

"Jet, take those two and get them back to the Bebop. We'll cover you." John said. "Arnold! Fall back and get ready to provide covering fire!" Arnold stopped firing and jogged over to them, dropping the clip from his weapon and putting in a fresh one.

"The Hammerhead can't carry three people." Jet responded. The situation was becoming serious so he decided to stop asking questions for now and go with what John was saying.

"Why am I not surprised?" John said, trying to think. "Try to make room Jet. He's after you and Ed, not Meifa but we can't leave her here."

"Who's after us!?" Jet asked, bringing his gun up. John and Arnold didn't have to answer as the person in question came out of the same alley Arnold did. On the other hand person probably wasn't the right word. What Jet saw looked like a person, except for the three gaping holes in its chest which it seemed to be ignoring. To add to that the wounds were healing themselves, to be specific it looked like they were flowing back together. It was probably a good guess that this thing was a Terminator, but what kind of Terminator did _**that**_!?! Jet didn't have long to figure that out as the new Terminator ejected an empty clip from his pistol and began to reload another. He walked at a steady, unhurried pace and had the blank, emotionless look on his face that all Terminators possessed.

"What's going on? Let Ed see!" Ed said as she poked her head out from behind Arnold. Up until that point Jet, John and now Arnold had been blocking her view. And, unknown to her, they had been hiding her from view as well. Now that she could be seen the others noticed a distinct change in the T-1000. While he continued to reload his pistol like a professional his face now displayed intense anger and hatred. Terminators could mimic such emotions but with this one it looked like it was no act. That realism threw John and Jet off by a spilt second but Arnold acted immediately, pushing Ed behind him just as the T-1000 leveled his gun at her and began shooting. Jet grabbed Meifa and pulled her behind a nearby dumpster while John dove behind a parked car. It was almost pointless for them to do so because while the T-1000 fired his weapon at inhuman speed, emptying his entire clip in a matter of seconds, all of his shots were aimed at Ed. A majority of them hit Arnold who made no sound or movement as the bullets thudded into him. The hail of bullets stopped and the distinct sound of an empty clip dropping to the ground was what the others were waiting for. John and Jet stepped out of their hiding places and along with Arnold opened up on the T-1000. A barrage of bullets and shotgun blasts tore into the liquid metal Terminator, punching well over two dozen small holes and several large ones in its chest.

The individual shots were almost insignificant but combined they were beginning to take a toll. The overwhelming force of taking so many hits was actually driving the T-1000 back. Seeing that they had the upper hand Arnold concentrated what was left of his clip on one specific area, the right shoulder. It took several rounds but he succeeded in actually blasting the T-1000's right arm off its body. Several more blasts to the chest again knocked it to the ground. If there was any sense of victory it was quickly shattered as they witnessed a new sight. The detached arm, gun still clutched in its hand, partially liquefied and began to… flow back to its owner, who was still on the ground. The arm reconnected with the body and the T-1000 sat up, the bullet holes closing as they watched.

"Arnold, get Ed out of here and back to the ship, take off if you have to. We'll catch up." John said as the three of them reloaded their weapons.

"Right." Arnold said and tossed his gun to Jet. Quickly scanning the area he saw that the road was filled with empty vehicles, abandoned because of the gunfight. Since obtaining a vehicle was not an option Arnold picked up Ed and started running. The T-1000, now standing, began to fire at the fleeing T-800. Arnold ignored the bullets hitting him in the back and kept on running, calculating the best way to lose the T-1000 and make if back to the transport. Behind him the T-1000 started running after them, still shooting. Jet and John opened fire to try and slow it down but not only did the T-1000 ignore the bullets that were hitting him, he ignored Jet and John, running right past them without slowing. Jet looked over at John for an explanation but he looked just as confused.

"Let's not look a gift horse in the mouth." John said after a few seconds. "Is your ship nearby?" Jet nodded and told him where. "Finally some good news. That's the same spaceport where ours is. You'll have to take her with you while the rest of us wait for Arnold and Ed."

"Only if Arnold can outrun that thing. What the hell is it and why is it after Ed?" Jet asked as they started back towards the spaceport.

"A new Terminator and we have no idea." John answered as he activated his radio. "We found them Kyle. You can…"

"No time to talk John. Working." Kyle responded before the signal was lost.

"He turned his radio off." John said. "Why would he do that?"

The why turned out to be a very good reason. Kyle had heard the sounds of a gun battle and followed them. He got within sight of the others just in time to see Arnold pick up Ed and take off. He knew Arnold was fast and he had a head start but if this thing was more advanced that would mean it was faster. Seeing which road Arnold was taking Kyle began to form an idea. Like John he had started out as a beat cop and knew these streets fairly well, including all the hidden shortcuts that the maps Arnold and presumably the T-1000 used didn't show. Showing just what kind of influence the Bebop crew had on him Kyle knew his plan was, in a word, nuts.

{Which means that it's going to work.} He thought to himself as he made his way through the back streets and onto the roof of a small building. He didn't know for sure that Arnold would come this way but he would be in the area. All he need was a little guidance.

"Arnold, I know you can hear me so listen carefully." He said into his radio after making sure he was only sending to Arnold. "I've got an idea but you're going have to do exactly what I say. We're going to do what's called a lateral in football. Here's what you need to do…" After telling Arnold what he would have to do Kyle gave him directions that would lead him to the street he was currently looking down into. Arnold didn't answer, there was no way he could, but Kyle was sure that he understood. He got confirmation when he heard heavy footsteps coming his way, accompanied by the sound of gunshots. He was getting ready when his radio came to life.

"We found them Kyle." He heard John's voice say. "You can…"

"No time to talk John. Working." Kyle interrupted and shut off the radio so it wouldn't give him away. It was just in time because a blur shot up from below and went over his head. Despite the fact he had come up with this dumb idea and knew this would happen he was still surprised when he looked up and saw Ed falling towards him, laughing the whole time. All of a sudden it dawned on him just _**how**_ dumb this idea was and what kinds of risks there was but he didn't exactly have time to consider that right now. What he needed to do was concentrate on catching Ed and not letting her slam into the roof of the building. Somehow he was able to move to the right spot and perform a textbook football catch. The follow-through was a different matter.

THUD!!!

The only problem was this 'football' was a person and Ed managed to knock Kyle off his feet and onto the roof, **hard.**

"OOMPH!!" Kyle didn't really want to say that but the air being forced from his lungs left him no choice.

"Touchdown!" Ed shouted, apparently she got the joke to. Any other time Kyle probably would have laughed but instead he clamped his hand over Ed's mouth to keep her quiet.

"Quiet!" He hissed and began listening. He heard Arnold's footsteps becoming more distant and he also heard a second set of footsteps approaching. If Arnold had followed Kyle's instructions the T-1000 shouldn't have seen anything that happened but there was still a chance that it would hear them. The footsteps got closer, then seemed to fade away. The next sound he heard was gunfire, and it was getting farther away to. If this was a trap it was a damn convincing one and since Kyle wasn't about to take any chances he made Ed stay still for several minutes, a very difficult thing for her. Now sure that the T-1000 wasn't coming up after them he took his hand off Ed's mouth and they stood up.

"That was fun!! Can Ed do it again?" Ed asked excitedly.

"Maybe later." Kyle answered. "Right now we've got to go meet up with the others. Now it's very important that you do what I say Ed, understand?" Ed nodded. "Good. Stay close to me, and don't wander off or make a lot of noise. I don't want you getting hurt. Okay?" Ed nodded again. "Then lets go."

At the spaceport John, Jet and Meifa were waiting. Using his police influence John had gotten a private hangar where the Hammerhead and the prison transport now sat. John had wanted Meifa and Jet to leave right away but Jet was determined to stay until he was sure Ed was safe. John had insisted but the older bounty hunter refused to budge. Seeing the futility of trying to make them leave John had given them a basic explanation of what was going on and who that freak Terminator was.

"I don't believe this." Jet said in response. "Liquid metal? Don't the laws of physics say that something liquid cannot get up and walk around on its own?"

"Probably." John answered. "But then again I'm positive if you ask every psychology expert that ever lived they'll tell you that there's no way a computer can become sentient." Jet was about to reply when he suddenly brought up the automatic shotgun he was carrying.

"Someone's coming." He said. John listened and heard two sets of footsteps. Neither were Arnold's so he took out his own pistol and pointed it at the hangar entrance.

"Does Ed still have to be quiet?" They heard someone ask.

"I guess not." Another voice, Kyle's, answered. "The others should be here by now and…" The two of them started walking into the hangar when they saw that John and Jet had guns pointed in their general direction. "Uh… we're real?"

"Well that thing wouldn't try to imitate two people at the same time. That's just dumb." Jet said and lowered his weapon.

"You sure about that?" John asked him. "Maybe we should test them, just in case."

"They're not him." Meifa said. The others turned to look at her.

"What makes you so sure?" John asked.

"Trust her on this John. If she says they're not him, they're not." Jet told him. John shrugged and let it drop.

"So where's Arnold?" John asked Kyle. "Last we saw he had Ed and you weren't anywhere near us."

"Actually I was and right now Arnold's leading the T-1000 through the city, as far away from here as possible. Once that thing realizes Arnold doesn't have Ed anymore he'll give up chasing him and Arnold can make his way back to the Bebop on his own. We can leave now and wait until he gets up there." Jet shook his head.

"If the T-1000 does give up, he'll head straight for the Bebop. From what John told me he knows where it is and even a machine would be able to guess if Ed isn't with Arnold she must be on the Bebop, or on her way to it."

"So what are we going to do?" Kyle asked. "We can't exactly go out and get him."

"You can't but I can." Jet said, heading for the Hammerhead.

"And what exactly are you going to do?" John asked.

"The Hammerhead is smaller and more maneuverable then your ship. I'll be able to track Arnold through his communicator and give him a lift back here faster then that T-1000 thing can follow. Then we can all leave at the same time."

"Well it does sound like a better idea then just waiting." Kyle agreed.

"It would help." John agreed. "How long will it take?"

"If Arnold's radio is still working not too long." Jet said as he shut the cockpit and started the engines. After the Hammerhead took off John turned to the others.

"We'll need to be ready to leave the second they get back. I'll stay on look out. Kyle, start the engines and get ready to move at a moments notice. You two wait inside the cockpit with him, it's the safest place there is." Ed and Meifa followed Kyle into the cockpit and he locked the door.

"Might as well get comfortable." Kyle told them as he started up the engines. "This may take a while." Meifa was about to offer the copilot's seat to Ed but the Earth hacker had already taken Kyle's advice and made herself comfortable. She was balancing herself on her head without using her hands. Since Ed wasn't going to sit Meifa sat down in the chair, deep in thought. "Something wrong?" Kyle asked her.

"No." She answered quickly. Kyle raised one of his eyebrows, not quite believing her. "Sorry. It's just that…" She couldn't find the right words.

"This is a lot to take in at once?" Kyle asked. "Don't worry about it. You'd be surprised on how fast you get used to strange and unusual things." He told her and looked over at Ed, who was now pretending to ride a bicycle while upside down.

"It's not that." Meifa said. "You probably wouldn't understand."

"Try me." Kyle said. Instead of actually answering him Meifa responded with a question.

"When you're around that machine, the one you call Arnold, doesn't it bother you that he looks and acts so human?"

"A little." Kyle answered. "Sometimes it's damn scary, but that's what he was built to do. If you think about it you could say it's not really that much different then anything that's programmable, just on a higher level."

"Then why do you treat him like a real person?" Meifa asked. Kyle didn't answer.

"Because Arnold person is a person." Ed spoke up, still on her head. "No machine man like him, Ed made him one of a kind." Meifa looked at Kyle for an answer.

"I think what she's trying to explain is when she hacked into Arnold's head she gave him a unique personality so he wouldn't be like the hundreds of other Terminators."

"Yep yep!" Ed agreed. "Ed made Arnold Arnold."

"I guess in some ways that does make him more like a real person." Kyle said. Meifa shook her head.

"When I look at them, I see emptiness. Not life, just something that is pretending to be." She said. Ed and Kyle exchanged glances, neither of them had an answer for that one.

That same time: Several miles away

Tracking Arnold hadn't been that difficult. Tracing the signal from his radio had proven to be easy, all he needed to do was change the frequency, and now Jet could see Arnold and the T-1000 was still chasing him. Kyle must have given him some really good shortcuts if he could stay this far ahead for so long.

"Arnold, this is Jet. Ed is safe and we're getting out of here. I'm going to take you back to your ship but I can't get my ship into streets that narrow. In about a hundred feet you'll have the option of going right or left. Go right and keep on going straight until you get to the main road. I'll try to get low enough for a pick up."

"Affirmative." Arnold replied. Jet maneuvered the Hammerhead above said street and waited. A few seconds later Arnold came running out of a side street and began running down it, towards the Hammerhead. The T-1000 was close behind and Jet knew he couldn't pick up Arnold without having to deal with the T-1000. Putting the Hammerhead into a shallow dive he got back onto the radio.

"Hit the dirt!" He told Arnold, who instantly complied and dove to the ground. The T-1000 stopped, realizing it had been fooled, and broke from its single-minded protocol as he became aware of the sound of engines. He looked up just in time to see the Hammerhead level out and head right for him. He had no time to react before the front of the craft slammed into him and sent him flying. He flew for almost half a block before crashing the side of a car, bending it almost in half. If he had been human all of his bones would have broken and he would have died on contact. But he wasn't human so he merely got back up and sprinted towards the now hovering craft.

Knowing that the T-1000 wouldn't be down for long Jet turned the Hammerhead ninety degrees and opened the cockpit.

"Grab on!" He shouted to Arnold, who had gotten to his feet. Arnold jumped and grabbed onto the craft, making it shudder in the process. Jet was about to take off when the Hammerhead shuddered again and this time he could feel the weight being added to the opposite side of the craft. That could only mean one thing so Jet reached down, grabbed the weapon and pointed it where he felt the slight tremor originate. Sure enough the T-1000 began to pull itself up and when it did it found itself literally looking down the barrel of the shotgun. Jet fired and instead of forming a large hole the blast actually spilt the T-1000's head right down the middle. It was enough to throw the T-1000 off the Hammerhead and back onto the pavement. That taken care of Jet closed the cockpit and gained altitude, heading back towards the spaceport.

On the ground the T-1000 got to its feet. The two halves of his head reconnected and melded together, showing no signs of what had just happened. The T-1000 watched the Hammerhead pull away, the renegade T-800 hanging from it. As it disappeared into the distance the T-1000 began to calmly walk away from the scene, not paying any attention to anything around him.

Back at the spaceport the others were anxiously waiting for Arnold and Jet to return. When John heard a craft approaching the hangar he ran out to see what was going on. On a regular day the sight of someone hanging on the side of a ship would have seemed strange but today it was almost expected.

"It's them." John said into his radio. As he watched Jet brought the Hammerhead down to a reasonable height and Arnold jumped to the ground.

"I'll wait for you guys to catch up." Jet said over the radio as the Hammerhead rose into the sky.

"You won't have to wait long." John answered, motioning for Arnold to follow him. The two of them ran into the prison transport and John shut the hatch. "GO!" He shouted to Kyle, who added more power to the engines, flew out of the hangar and raced after the Hammerhead.

On the ground the T-1000 looked skyward as two ships took off and headed for the upper atmosphere. He watched them only for a split second. He knew where they were going; all that was needed was to get another ship so he could follow them. They might leave Mars space before he did but he wasn't worried. He would find them, sooner or later. Humans eventually tired, he never would.


	5. Finding a Destination

Chapter 5: Finding a Destination

On route to the Bebop

"There any sign of something chasing us?" John asked as he opened the cockpit door.

"Except for the Hammerhead I've got an empty screen." Kyle told him. That gave John some relief. He didn't think that the T-1000 could get a ship and come after them this fast. Of course he used to think that killer robots were part of science fiction and look where he was now. Being chased by one killer robot, made out of liquid metal no less, and being helped by another who was now standing behind him. And to top everything off he was bleeding, a robot was actually bleeding. If that didn't show that reality wasn't what it used to be nothing would.

"Is Arnold person hurt?" Ed asked. Kyle needed to keep his attention on the control panel but Ed and Meifa were looking past John at Arnold, who remained silent. Turning around John saw why Ed had asked. He didn't have a good look when he first arrived and had only seen that Arnold was bleeding but now he saw that Arnold's shirt had more then a few bullet holes in it and the front of it was damp with blood. If he were a normal person he would have been dead quite a few times over. Even if the bullets hadn't done it the blood loss would have made him woozy at the least, more likely he would be on the floor unconscious. And this wasn't even taking into account he had been shot in the back just about as many times. Despite all that Arnold kept his face neutral, not that it was really surprising. Faye had told him that the only time she had seen a Terminator's expression change, Arnold included, was when she shot part of the face off one of them, and that was because of muscle damage.

"You okay?" John asked Arnold. It was kind of a dumb question but the T-1000 might have gotten a lucky shot and damaged something.

"Yes. There is extensive tissue damage but my circulatory pump is intact. Provided the bullets are removed and the tissue bandaged it will not be compromised."

"Compromised?" Asked Kyle.

"The skin will begin to rot and become useless as camouflage." Arnold stated. Even Ed had to pause at that one. Not many people would calmly state that their own skin would rot and fall off if not properly maintained.

"We'll see what we can do once we get to the Bebop." John finally said. "Once we get our act together we can concentrate on destroying that thing. I'm sorry Meifa but it looks like you're going to have to stay with us for a while. Since the T-1000 knows who you are now we can't risk him finding you." Meifa seemed to suddenly realize that John was talking to her and nodded but she looked troubled, almost frightened. It wasn't hard to figure out what had her so on edge. "You'd better go sit down Arnold, I think you're scaring her."

"Right." Arnold responded and went back into main section of the craft. John stepped inside the cockpit and shut the door. It seemed to snap Meifa out of her thoughts.

"I'm sorry,…" She started.

"You don't have to apologize." John told her. "I know this isn't going to be easy for you and I understand why, but we need to stop that new Terminator and keep you safe. If you want I can tell Arnold to stay away from you as much as he can."

"There's no need to do that. I'll be fine." Meifa answered. Everyone, even Ed, was looking at her with a questioning look.

"If that's what you want then all right." John finally replied. If Meifa was willing to try being around Arnold he wasn't about to stop it. Of course he didn't really believe her when she said she would be fine but he also knew being around Arnold was the best way for her to get over her problems with him.

The trip back was quiet, mostly because they didn't want to risk the T-1000 eavesdropping in on radio transmissions and tracing them. Once they landed on the Bebop, that was entirely different matter.

"ALL RIGHT WHERE IS HE?!?!?" No sooner had they shut off their engines then Faye's distinctive scream rang through the hangar. Even Arnold had heard it and he came to the same conclusion the others had, she was really pissed. There was little doubt that the he Faye was talking about was John but in her current state of mind she was willing to take her frustrations out on the first person she saw. Since Jet was the only person visible in either craft she stomped over to him. "Do you have any idea how much money I probably lost!?!? I was on one of my best winning streaks ever and I had to get dragged away from it because fuzzy tells me John said it was important!!!!" She ranted, gesturing over to Spike. He was currently leaning against a hangar wall, hands in his pockets and looking disinterested in what was going on in front of him.

"You didn't tell her?" Jet asked him, practically ignoring Faye. He had seen enough of her tantrums to be able to take them in stride.

"She never gave me a chance." Spike answered with a shrug. "All she kept going on about was how good she was doing until I showed up."

"And you don't have a mark on you." Jet remarked as the ramp of the prisoner transport clanged on the hangar floor. Faye turned her attention to those getting off the transport but instantly forgot it when Jet asked his next question. "So how did you do it?" She turned and gave Spike a glare that promised him a very slow and painful death if he told but true to his form he ignored it and answered without hesitation.

"Simple. I showed the casino guys how she was cheating." Faye looked ready to strangle him when Jet put in his thoughts.

"I guess that's not very surprising." It was very easy to interpret what _that_ remark meant and she turned her murderous attentions towards Jet when someone else spoke up.

"And how did you manage to get her out of there intact?" John asked as he came around towards the front of the transport. "Casinos aren't exactly known for being forgiving towards cheaters."

"I just told them that she was a compulsive cheater, I was her parole officer and she would be going back to prison for a long time for what she was doing." Faye started glaring at him again. "What?" Faye looked like she was ready to rush Spike and probably would have when someone grabbed the back of her shirt and stopped her.

"Bad move." She growled and without even looking kicked her foot back and ground her heel into the ankle of whoever was holding her. She thought it was John and was expecting him to let go, cursing and holding his ankle in pain. To her surprise not only was there no sound but she suddenly found herself lifted off of the floor.

"Acting in an irrational state of mind is an even worse move." A monotone voice answered.

"It's called justifiable homicide you tinhead! Now let go of me!" Faye shouted, not really caring that it was Arnold and he was holding her several inches off the ground with no effort. Still not quite thinking clearly she thrust her elbow back. "OW!" The pain that ran through her arm helped clear her mind in a hurry as she forgot about killing Spike and grabbed her now throbbing elbow. That pain was almost forgotten as she felt that her elbow was wet and when she looked at it she saw blood. It didn't look like she was bleeding so she turned her head to get a look at Arnold, and saw that he was a bloody mess. "What happened to you?" She asked. Deciding that Faye had calmed down significantly enough Arnold set her back on the ground.

"The reason why we're here." Kyle answered. Faye looked past John and Arnold and was surprised not only to see Kyle and Ed but Meifa as well. "We'll tell you but in the meantime Arnold here needs to be patched up before he.., well…, falls apart."

"How are we supposed to do that?" Spike asked. "We don't even know how badly he's damaged, or if we can fix him."

"You will not need to fix me." Arnold replied. "There is no damage to my endoskeleton and I will only need a few things as well as some assistance to treat the bullet strikes."

"So what do you need?" Jet asked. Slight damage or no he wanted Arnold to not have any problems when they came up against the T-1000 again.

"A pair of pliers and bandages large enough to cover the wounds." Arnold answered. There were looks of confusion all around from the gathered humans.

Ten minutes later in the lounge they understood why Arnold had asked for what he did. It was quite an unnerving sight, even with everything they had already seen, for them to watch Arnold put the pliers into the bullet holes in his chest and pull the slugs out without even a grimace. Even Ein, who had never shown any fear around Arnold, looked a bit weirded out. Nobody even wanted to think about what they were going to do once Arnold was finished and the bullets in his back needed to be removed. Despite the awkwardness of the situation they had decided they needed to make a plan immediately so they just had to deal with it.

Jet and John had taken the two chairs while Meifa, Faye and Ed sat on the couch, Kyle and Spike behind them. They were gathered around Tomato, which was currently displaying all the information they had on the liquid metal the T-1000 was made of. Arnold had placed himself out of sight after realizing that what he was doing would be a distraction and that he was disturbing Meifa again. That only helped a little since they could still hear the occasional clink of a removed bullet hitting the empty soup can Arnold was putting them in. The impromptu meeting got off to a very predictable start from one of the people who needed to be brought up to speed.

"Liquid metal?" Faye asked in disbelief. "John you really expect us to believe this? A robotic skeleton okay, but a walking, talking slab of jello?" Behind her Spike was having his own doubts about what they were being told. When he was told that they were dealing with a new Terminator he had expected it to be stronger and smarter and maybe look different then the T-800s Skynet had used before but this was completely out of left field.

"Trust us Faye." Jet told her. "I didn't believe it at first either but we just shot this thing to pieces, literally, and it just reformed and got back up."

"Which leads us to the biggest question." Spike remarked. "How do we destroy it?" He really didn't care about the why or how behind the problem. Heck, it was easy to figure out why the T-1000 was coming after them. Skynet probably programmed this thing to hunt down the people that had caused it the most grief.

"We've had Arnold working on that." John replied. "Come up with anything yet?" He asked as Arnold tossed another bullet into his collection.

"After studying the files I've concluded that the atomic structure of the liquid metal may become unstable if exposed to extreme heat, cold, or highly corrosive chemicals. However without knowing just how the metal is constructed I cannot accurately predict its tolerances for any of them."

"At least that's something to go on." Kyle said.

"Oh sure it'll real easy." Faye remarked sarcastically. "All we have to do is lure him to a volcano and say 'why don't you go for a swim, the lava's fine.'"

"It is someplace to start." Jet said, trying to counter Faye's pessimism. "But first we need to get Meifa away from here. She has nothing to do with any of this and we can't have her in the line of fire. I know a couple friends of the family and she would be safer there then here."

"No she wouldn't." Arnold said. Everyone turned to look at him. "The T-1000 knows who she is and knows her connection with the rest of you. One of its first acts would be to contact all known associates of everyone in this room, her included, and try to acquire information on our whereabouts. If she leaves we run the risk of the T-1000 finding her and using whatever means necessary to get the information he wants." The entire group was silent for a moment as they processed just what Arnold's statement meant.

"You sure?" John finally asked.

"I would." Arnold replied as he tossed another bullet into the pile, its clink being the loudest noise in the room.

"If that's the case we'd better leave right away." Jet said as he stood up. "I already put the Bebop into a different orbit but since we're not going to take Meifa back to Mars we need to pick someplace to head for. Any suggestions?"

"If what Arnold said is true we need to go someplace we never would go regularly. At the very least it has to be somewhere that we would to as a last resort with no options left." Kyle said.

"Earth." All of the adults said almost simultaneously.

"That brings up the next big question, where on Earth?" John asked. "The T-1000 has to know we have contacts on that planet and if it finds out where we're headed he'll know where to look."

"That just means we'll have to find someplace he doesn't know that we would go." Spike suddenly put in.

"And just how are we supposed to do that Spike?" Jet asked. "If he knows practically everything about us he'll be able to figure out what places we would most likely go."

"Easy, all we have to do is find someplace _we_ don't even know about." Spike replied.

"It does make tactical sense." Arnold said before anyone else could respond. "Hiding in a place that none of you had prior knowledge of, or access to, until just now decreases the probability of the T-1000 finding us." Despite how well Doohan and Miles had taught him to act human they had told Arnold he still sometimes overcomplicated his explanations. Seeing that even though all the humans, and dog, understood his meaning their reactions told him he had done it again. Knowing most humans didn't like that he simplified. "If you did not even know you were going there, why would he?"

"Good point." Jet admitted. "With John's help I should be able to get the Bebop through the astral gate without tipping off the T-1000. Ed, I guess it's up to you and MPU to find someplace for us to hide. The rest of us should concentrate on how to destroy or at least disable this thing."

Mars: low orbit

At the same time the Bebop crew were making their escape plan the T-1000 was already in pursuit. It had been easy but time consuming to secure another ISSP craft, this time a fighter, with his disguise. Logic told the T-1000 the humans would flee Mars, and logic dictated that they would go someplace where the T-1000's tracking skills were at its weakest. Tracking the ship would be hard, but not impossible, so indefinitely running was out. A suitable place to hide from pursuit would have hazardous terrain, maximum danger to the pursuer but maximum safety to the ones who were being pursued. The closest thing that fit those parameters was where this had started, Earth. The humans had about half an hour head start on him but with an idea of their destination and no need for rest he would eventually hunt them down.

In transit to Earth: Twenty minutes later

"One thing's for sure…." John remarked as he pulled another bullet out of Arnold's back. "the T-1000 sure is a hell of a good shot. This has to be number twenty." As expected when Arnold had finished digging the bullets out of his front someone needed to pull the back ones out. To nobody's surprise volunteers were nowhere to be found. After several minutes of everyone looking around at everyone else John had finally had enough and said he'd do it. After everything else that had happened in the past twenty-four hours this was probably the_** least**_ strange of the bunch. After he had volunteered to help the others went back to what they had been doing, which mainly consisted of trying to come up with a solution to their problem. Ed was still looking for a someplace to set the Bebop down when they got to Earth; otherwise she would have been helping him patch up Arnold. He did have an audience however, Ein and to his surprise Meifa stood behind him watching. Ein had warily regarded the robot since he had stepped onboard but had not gone into his usual barking and snarling routine. Maybe the fact that Arnold had taken all those bullets meant for Ed convinced Ein that he could be trusted, to a point.

"Twenty eight." Arnold corrected John. "And ten more remaining."

"Must be good to be a walking battle tank." John responded as he went after another bullet.

"Don't you feel anything?" Meifa suddenly asked. John, Arnold, even Ein looked back at her. She had been silent the entire time and it was evident she still wasn't comfortable being around Arnold. It was also the first time she had addressed him directly.

"My endoskeleton has pressure sensors that let me know when my skin or the metal itself has been damaged. This data would be what you consider pain." Arnold answered. The answer seemed to make Meifa more nervous.

"Does that mean you feel fear?" If a robot could 'feel' one thing who knew what kind of other emotions it had.

"No." Arnold answered without hesitation.

"Not even of dying?" She continued.

"Not in the same way you do." He answered. "When Ed reprogrammed me there were two main protocols she installed. The primary one was to protect and obey the orders of whoever she chose, to help them in any way possible."

"And the second?" Meifa asked.

"To maintain my own functionality so that I may serve a purpose."

"That's really deep for something coming from Ed." John said. "Did she input a purpose for you?"

"No, one of the guidelines she installed was for me to determine my own purpose." That statement made John frown and Meifa actually looked frightened. The last time something mechanical had 'determined it's own purpose' it almost wiped out the human race. John highly doubted Ed would allow Arnold to make that kind of choice.

"Have you?" John asked.

"No. There is basic contradiction that I have to obey orders from you and make my own choices. As long as that remains I cannot make a definite decision."

"Does that mean you don't think about it?" Meifa asked. While the thought of a machine deciding it's own destiny did on one level frighten her she was curious to see how something like Arnold would make that decision.

"Constantly." Arnold replied. "It is just until Ed allows me to act on those thoughts I cannot let them override my current primary function. Protecting you and the others." Though John gave no outward reaction Meifa and Ein were visibly surprised. True while he had said that Ed had the final word on the subject the fact he seemed to be putting the well being of the Bebop crew ahead of himself, when he had the option to do otherwise, was …almost beyond belief. Ein made a surprised sounding whine and Meifa looked down to see him looking up at her as if to say 'Who would have thought?' It was a statement Meifa was sure to have agreed with, if she could read minds or speak dog.

While three of the crew were getting a lesson in robotic psychiatry the others were concentrating on the two main problems, hiding from and finding a way to destroy the T-1000. Ed was still looking for a good hiding place while the adults were deciding how to go on the offensive.

"What about luring him to a metal processing plant, like when you went against that Predator." Kyle suggested. "The stuff they have in there has got to be hot enough to melt almost anything."

"I don't think there are many of those plants still operating on Earth." Jet replied. "Even if there were, making him swan dive into a vat of molten steel is going to be next to impossible." Kyle thought about it for a few minutes.

"Ed said that Spike built a flame-thrower once. Maybe we can each take one of those…."

"No good." Spike interrupted. "The heat that thing had wasn't even able to kill a freak lobster. The T-1000 probably won't feel it."

"What about using rocket fuel in it?" Kyle said, grasping at straws.

"And blow ourselves up?" Jet asked. "No thanks. We've got to face facts. Heat is probably the only thing that will work on this terminator. We don't have anything that produce that much heat that we can carry, and it's probably too smart to be lured into a place that does."

"So why don't you geniuses build a freeze ray?" Faye asked sarcastically. It was the first input she had given to this discussion and to her surprise the other three looked over at her, completely amazed. "What?"

"Did she just give us a good idea?" Spike asked, not sounding like he would believe the answer.

"Out of the unlikeliest of places." Jet added.

"I can't believe we didn't think of it before." Kyle finished.

"What are you guys talking about?! You can't build a freeze ray!" Faye shouted. From her point of view it sounded like they were all making fun of her.

"No, but we could build something that's pretty close." Jet explained. "We take a couple of Spike's homemade flame-throwers, line them with some heavy duty insulation…"

"Fill them with some kind of coolant, like liquid nitrogen or oxygen…" Spike continued.

"And presto.. instant terminator ice cube." Kyle finished. "Even if that doesn't destroy it we would be able to carry it somewhere we can."

"It is a sound idea." Arnold said as he, John, Meifa and Ein walked over. He was now sporting bandages over all the bullet wounds and was putting on a spare shirt. "There is a possibility it has been built to withstand chemicals but it will not be able to withstand such an extremely low temperature."

"Now that we have a battle plan... " Jet started.

"Thanks to me." Faye put in smugly. Even if it was sort of an accident she was going to take full credit for coming up with this idea.

"Don't expect lightning to strike twice Faye." Spike told her flatly. She shot him a dirty look in response.

"AS I WAS SAYING!" Jet stated as loudly as he could without shouting. "We have a way to fight this thing now, but that's only half of it. We still need…"

"Ed found it!!!" Ed shouted triumphantly from her spot in the corner.

"Now that's timing." Spike remarked with a smirk.

"Ed has found perfect place for Bebop Bebop to be verrrrry sneakyyyyy." Ed said, still looking at the screen. John was the closest to her and he crouched down to look at where she had chosen. She scooted aside to give John a better view of the screen. "John person thinks Ed did a good job?" She asked excitedly.

"It certainly looks like a good place to hide." John said as he began looking though the gathered data. While Ed was beaming with pride the gathered adults, minus Arnold, were quickly becoming annoyed.

"Well are you going to tell us anything or do we have to start guessing?" Faye asked.

"You can guess all you want but you're not going to get it." John answered as he continued to shuffle through data.

"Then maybe you should tell us before Faye bursts a blood vessel." Kyle said, noticing the now angry look on Faye's face.

"If she insists." John remarked, smiling. "It's a missile base that was turned into some sort of huge laboratory in the 1960's and was abandoned completely a few years before the gate accident. The stuff they did there was apparently so dangerous and secretive that it looks like only MPU had any remaining data on it. It's in a desert that used to be called New Mexico; out in the middle of nowhere so nobody would think of looking there. Even if they did the place would be run down and falling apart by now."

"Sounds like it has all the comforts of home." Spike remarked. "Does this place have a name?" John scrolled through some more data before answering.

"Black Mesa."


	6. Home Sweet Base

Chapter 6: Home Sweet Base

The trip to Earth had been uneventful. That was something everyone on the Bebop was thankful for. They had been keeping an eye out but so far no one seemed to be following them, and for a change they had not made the evening news. The gunbattle had been the highlight of course but it was discounted as rival gangs fighting over territory. Either no one had gotten a good look at the Terminators or that bit of information was being suppressed. The only real source of activity was the building the 'freeze rays' Faye had suggested. With Arnold helping him Spike had made three of his contributions to at home destruction, heavily modified. Insulation was easy, but they didn't want to take any coolant out of anything they might need later.

As Jet piloted the Bebop into Earth's atmosphere and towards Black Mesa, under MPU's navigation, he headed for a small river that would take them to one of the main entrances of the base. The water was barely deep enough for the Bebop to land in but Jet was able to make due. Since going on the river would be safer then flying the other adults, except Arnold, had chosen to go out on the Bebop's deck and check out their new surroundings. It really wasn't much to look at.

"You sure that we're going the right way?" Spike asked, very bored. He wasn't one for sightseeing to begin with and the endless miles of canyon walls that surrounded the ship as they went really made things dull.

"It's supposed to be a secret base Spike." John reminded him. "What did you expect, a bunch of neon signs telling us how to get there?"

"It would have helped." Spike responded. "At least a hint that we're getting close would help."

"I think we just got one." Kyle said, pointing towards one section of the cliff. The others looked and saw what looked like a giant sewerpipe attached to the cliff face. Around it were metal support beams and walkways, most likely used for maintenance. The metal had fallen into disrepair but still looked fairly strong and sturdy.

"Hey Jet.." Spike started to say into his radio when he was cut off.

"I see it." Jet answered. "According to MPU there's a place about a mile ahead where we can set the Bebop and get into the main base." Sure enough a mile later they saw the entrance, sort of. What MPU had neglected to mention was that they had to climb up several ladders and cross several bridges to get to it. To be specific _**rope**_ ladders and _**wooden **_bridges, all of which had not held up nearly as well as the metal structures.

"So are we going to chance it?" John asked. Everyone was saved the trouble of having to answer when a stiff breeze blew down the canyon. The wind took the wooden planks of the bridges and carried them off like playing cards.

"Guess not." Spike remarked as they watched the planks fall into the river.

"Lucky for us MPU was able to come up with an alternative." The others turned to see Jet walking out of the hangar. "This place has several helipads and some of them are still in good enough shape to land our ships on."

"And just leave them sitting out for anyone who happens to fly by to see?" Faye asked.

"We'll send them back on auto pilot once everything is finished." Jet replied. "We're going to have to take as many supplies with us as possible. Essentials only, that means food, water, and any weapons you can carry. We don't know how long we're going to be here so we might as well be prepared. The sooner we get in there the better so make sure you're ready to go in ten minutes. John, you and Kyle will fly anyone who doesn't have a ship of their own. That transport you borrowed should be able to carry the bulk of what we need no problem. The rest of us will carry whatever our ships can. And Faye, a word of warning, bring stuff that will be useful to _all_ of us. If you don't the rest of us won't share anything with you." Faye snorted and gave Jet a 'so what' expression. "Just remember that John and Kyle are going to be transporting most of the food." Faye narrowed her eyes and scowled but still said nothing. It wasn't hard to know what she was thinking at the moment and John decided to head her off now before things got ugly later.

"I suppose we could have Arnold guard it. Simple shoot to kill orders should do the trick." Now Faye turned her angry expression towards John who, in spite of the situation, smiled. That only served to make her angrier and to turn her face red. That, in turn, only made John's smile wider, and now everyone else joined in. Knowing she wasn't going to win this one Faye turned and stormed back into the ship. "What's her problem?" That got a low chuckle out of the others. As they all headed inside to begin the loading procedures John realized he had forgotten just how much fun pressing Faye's buttons could be.

The next ten minutes went by smoothly. Because of his ability to lift heavy loads Arnold was designated to carry the bulk of supplies once they got to the base. After scrounging around they had managed to find several spare duffel bags lying around and filled them to the point where they were almost bursting. Those bags, along with the modified flame-throwers, were set in the back of the stolen transport. The others had to make due with using clothes with as much pocket space as possible and loading them to the breaking point. The only exception was Tomato, which rode along with Ed in the transport. They would need MPU to guide them with what little knowledge of the base's defenses he had. With all that taken care of the only thing left was seating arrangements. Kyle would be piloting and John was willing to give up his seat in the cockpit but to everyone's surprise Meifa had agreed to sit in the back of the transport with Arnold and Ed.

"You're sure about this?" John asked Meifa as they prepped for take off. It would only be a short trip but he could see that she still wasn't going to be comfortable with it.

"I'm sure." Was her only reply. John saw she was determined to do this and he wasn't going to stop her. Arnold walked into the transport carrying the rest of the supplies, followed by Ed and Ein. Meifa's gaze fell on the Terminator and while John could see the apprehension coming back she didn't look like she wanted to get away from him as badly as before. It was a sign of progress so John just turned and went back into the cockpit.

"She going to be okay?" Kyle asked as the door hissed shut.

"I think so." John answered as he sat down in the copilot's chair. "Takes a lot of guts to do what she's doing so quickly. I just hope Arnold knows enough not to push it."

Arnold was aware enough of the fact that Meifa was uncomfortable around him and seated himself on the opposite side of the craft and as far away from her as possible. Ed sat down right next to him, smiling. When Meifa didn't say anything a look of disappointment crossed Ed's face. She was just trying to show that there was no reason to be afraid of Arnold. Inadvertently she had made Meifa more anxious by again showing how easily the robot could be accepted as a human being. Her thoughts were broken as a bark sounded off and they all looked to see Ein sitting right next to Arnold's feet. He looked slightly disgusted but he still sat there. After seeing that Meifa had noticed him Ein stood, walked over to her and barked again. Smiling, Meifa leaned down and picked him up. It was nice to know there was someone else who felt the same way she did, and was trying just like her, even if he couldn't really say it.

The trip up and landing was simple. The landing pads weren't very far from a tunnel entrance to the base. It was labeled 'Black Mesa: South Entrance- 1/2 mile' meaning they would have a bit of a walk ahead of them. That is if two thick blast doors weren't sealing the tunnel off. Fortunately there was what looked like a control panel on the side of the door. Before anyone could speak Ed was at it and pushing buttons almost at random.

"Ten Woolongs says she gets it in two minutes." John said as they watched Ed work.

"It's a high grade military system, even if it is old. Twenty says she'll need MPU and it'll take ten minutes." Faye challenged. Sure Ed might have defeated a modern system, Skynet, but she had MPU's help. Busting passwords was easy, disabling an entire security system that was….

"Blast door in motion. Stand clear." A flat, toneless voice announced. …hard? To make its point an alarm started sounding, followed by something nobody expected. From right in front of them and what seemed to be everywhere else was the unmistakable hiss of air pressure being released. Everyone had heard the sound before at one point or another, only now it was ratcheted up to an almost deafening roar. To complicate matters the blast doors ahead of them began to open and had a vacuum effect on the surrounding area. The onrush of air wasn't strong enough to drag anyone, though Ein was grateful that Meifa picked him up when the artificial windstorm started, but it was still a cause of suspicion for the rest of the group. All of them except Ed of course, who put her arms out and was pretending to fly.

"WHOOSH!!" She added to the howl of wind. After several seconds the wind died down and the roar faded, leaving them able to hear the echo of similar roars that were occurring all along the valley.

"Minute thirty-five seconds." John said, smirking at Faye.

"Quarantine protocol deactivated." The voice announced. "Please proceed."

"I thought this base was supposed to be abandoned." John said, pulling the auto-shotgun off of his back.

"Looks like someone left the light on." Kyle remarked.

"Probably all automated." Jet added. "It's up to MPU now." The looked towards Ed, who was booting up Tomato.

"There is a side door leading to a transit hub down this corridor." MPU stated. "It will be the fastest way to enter the main base."

"Well standing around here sure isn't getting us anywhere." Spike said, taking out his own gun and walking forward.

The group slowly walked down the tunnel, John and Spike taking point just in case they ran into any surprises. There were none and soon they came to the door MPU had told them about. Like the blast doors it was electronically sealed but Ed was again able to crack the code and let them in. Ahead of them was a long, twisting hallway that ended with what looked like another blast door but had the sign 'Level Alpha Freight' above it.

"Isn't this just a bit of overkill?" Faye asked sarcastically. "Something like this just for an elevator?"

"It was a government base Faye." John answered. "Anything a government builds is going to be paranoid to the point of insanity. You probably need a key code just to go to the bathroom in this place." He took a closer look at the freight door and noticed something. "There's no panel on this. How are we supposed to open it?"

"Probably from up there." Spike answered, pointing at something. The others looked up and saw a window leading to a separate room about ten feet up the wall. "How much you wanna bet you can't get there from down here?"

"Probably has bulletproof glass to." John added. "Anyone have an idea?"

"I've got one." Jet said. "Spike, let me have one of your grenades." He knew he didn't need to ask if he had any in the first place. This was Spike after all. Sure enough Spike reached into his coat and tossed one of his favorite toys to Jet, who caught it without looking. "Thanks. Now we need something to hold it in place."

"Will this do?" Kyle asked. As Jet turned to see what Kyle was talking about he noticed something coming at him and raised his other arm to catch it. Taking a closer look he saw that he had just been given a roll of duct tape. "You never know when stuff like that will come in handy." Kyle answered to Jet's unasked question as he reclosed one of the duffel bags.

"Good thinking." Jet complimented as he looked back up at the window.

"Leave it to men to think of bringing something like that to a place like this." Faye remarked.

"It's more useful then anything _you_ would think to bring." Spike replied. Faye was about to respond when a gunshot caught everyone by surprise. Looking back they saw Jet lower his still smoking handgun then looked up to where he had aimed it. Jet had made a perfect dead center shot and the window now showed the impact of the bullet hit. It hadn't shattered the glass, it had barely even cracked it. That didn't matter because now there was a 'weak point' in the armored glass.

"All that's left is something to pull the pin with." Jet said, admiring his handiwork. Unfortunately nobody had packed string for this little trip so it was decided that tearing strips from Spike's coat would have to do. Fortunately Spike wasn't very attached to the coat, it would probably be shot full of holes anyway, and they only needed one sleeve to get the distance they wanted.

"I thought you were a detective, not some sort of demolition expert." Kyle remarked as Jet stood on Arnold's shoulders and attached the grenade to the window.

"When you make busts with a SWAT team you learn a thing or two about entering locked places. Maybe you kids could pick up a few pointers." Jet replied as he made sure the tape wouldn't hold down the 'spoon' of the grenade once the pin was pulled.

"Yeah right." Spike responded. Kyle only reacted with a grunt. There was no question that Spike was the best when it came to blowing things up and Kyle, being a self proclaimed weapons expert, probably knew more then his fair share about explosives. After making sure the grenade was secure Jet had the others retreat down the hallway and around a corner that would serve as cover.

"Now stand back and cover your ears." The others did as they were told. There was a startled yelp from Ein and everyone looked to see the dog was being picked up one-handed by Arnold. The data dog started to thrash and snarl in Arnold's grip but the robot ignored it and clamped his free hand firmly over Ein's head. Ein let out a furious bark but stopped when he realized that he couldn't hear himself. Arnold's hand was covering up Ein's ears so he would be safe from the noise of the explosion in such an enclosed space.

"Boy do I wish I had a camera." John remarked when he saw Ein react to what he had just figured out. He had never seen the dog so confused, and everyone else, even Meifa, couldn't help but smile or laugh.

"Here we go." Jet warned, and everyone else turned away from where the blast was going to come from. Giving the makeshift string a hard pull Jet felt it slack but waited for the double ping of the pin and spoon hitting the floor. He heard both and covered his own ears. The explosion made the ground shake and sent a shockwave down the hallway but that was the extent of what anyone felt. Making their way back to the elevator everyone saw that Jet's idea had worked. Glass was scattered all over the floor and the window to the security room no longer existed. Kneeling down John picked up a hand full of glass pieces and examined them.

"Safety glass." He announced. Instead of producing knife like shards this type of glass was designed to shatter into pebble like grains, making it safe for even the barefoot Ed to walk on them with no danger of injury.

"So who's going to go in there?" Faye asked. Kyle answered by glancing over at their resident hacker and getting an idea.

"Hey Ed. You up for playing a little more football?" He asked. Ed's eyes immediately brightened and she nodded enthusiastically. While everyone else was giving him questioning looks Ed ran over to Arnold, literally jumping up and down with excitement. "Arnold, do your thing and make sure she has a soft landing."

"Right." Arnold replied before picking up Ed and giving her (to him) a light toss up to the window. As the others watched with looks of mixed surprise and horror Ed easily sailed through the window and into the office, laughing the entire trip. They heard her land softly and let out a squeal of delight.

"Ed is good for three points!!!" She declared. The others breathed a sigh of relief and looked back at Kyle, some looking at him like had had gone off the deep end.

"Hey it worked before." Was the only explanation he gave. Faye and Meifa still looked at him like he was nuts but before anyone could read him the riot act Ed's voice drifted down from the room.

"Ed found elevator button!" In response the blast doors in front of the elevator slowly began to open. "Ed also got Bebop Bebop first class tickets to secret place, and lots of things for MPU to look at." She added. Looking around John noticed Tomato lying on the floor and picked it up.

"How good are your hands Ed?" He called up.

"Ed never misses." Came the reply. That was good enough and he handed Tomato to Arnold.

"You'd better not miss either." He warned.

"I won't." Arnold answered. Taking careful aim he threw the computer up towards Ed, who reached out and caught it with no problem. After hooking Tomato up MPU's voice began to filter down.

"I've attempted interface with the main computer but this security office is operating on a separate circuit. Between Ed and myself all security measures from here to the main operations center have been deactivated. A transit car is waiting below and will take us to the operations center where the computer network for the entire base will be accessible."

"Down it is." Jet said turning towards the elevator.

"Heads up!" A cheerful voice said a split second before Tomato came flying out of the security office. Kyle was closest and managed to grab the computer before it hit the ground.

"Don't even…!!!" John shouted before Ed leaped out of the office. "…try it." He finished quietly. He had only been thinking of Ed's safety but she proved that it wasn't necessary as she landed in a near perfect handstand.

"Edward gives Ed a perfect ten!" She proudly announced and switched to an one-armed handstand. "And Bebop Bebop goes wild!" She added as the others just stared at her, with Ein the only one complementing her. The others looked at one another silently agreeing it was best to leave it alone and headed towards the elevator. It supported all of their weight easily and descended very smoothly, quite good for something that was supposed to be abandoned for so long. They stopped a dozen or so floors lower and found themselves in what looked like a train station. Only this one had an added detail that most others didn't once you tried to get onto the platform.

"Ed, I thought MPU said all the security was shut down." Faye said, very annoyed. Ahead of them, blocking their path to what had to be the transit car, was a cage like structure and a securely locked door.

"Don't blame her." Spike said, getting a closer look at the door. "This thing has a couple of deadbolt bars across it, non electronic." He looked up and noticed something. "Looks like they didn't want to take any chances on someone getting this far." The others looked up and saw, on the other side of the metal bars, a walkway stretching the length of the platform and led into a door on a higher level. There was only one reason a walkway would be there and that was to allow whoever was guarding the door a clean shot at whoever might have broken in.

"Looks like her key didn't work on everything." John remarked.

"Let me try mine." Arnold said, walking up to the door as Spike got out of his way. Setting his balance Arnold raised one foot and kicked the door on one of the deadbolt bars as hard as he could. The bar snapped and the door bent but the second bar held, barely. A second kick snapped that bar as well and knocked the door off its bottom hinges. As the door slowly swung open at a crooked angle Arnold looked back at the others.

"Can't beat a key like that." Spike said as he stepped through the door and towards the transit car.

"Men." Faye grumbled as she glanced at Arnold. "Even the fake ones." That got a snicker from the other humans but Arnold remained silent. As they got closer to the car its door slid open in response to their approach.

"Now that's service." John said as he stepped inside. The car itself wasn't that much different then ones they had ridden on before. Plain seats, a little legroom, but not much else. The only real difference was this one ran on a rail that was above the car instead of underneath it. Once all of them were inside the door slide shut and the car lurched forward as it began to move.

"Good morning, and welcome to the Black Mesa transit system." A pleasant sounding female voice said over a speaker mounted in the ceiling "This automated train is provided for the security and convenience of the Black Mesa research facility personnel. The time is 9:49 a.m., current topside temperature is 86 degrees with an estimated high of 105. The Black Mesa compound is maintained at a pleasant 68 degrees at all times."

"Am I the only one wondering how a base that's supposed to be abandoned for sixty years be working like it just opened?" Kyle asked as the voice continued.

"Probably has a bunch of Earthers living here." Faye suggested. "If I was living on a planet where a meteor could fall on my head this is the kind of place I would hang out."

"That doesn't make sense." Jet replied. "If there were people here we would have heard something by now. An alarm, vehicles," He managed to stop himself before he said gunshots so he didn't scare Meifa. "But nothing so far. The only thing that even comes close to a person is that." He nodded towards the speaker.

"Do you have a friend or relative who would make a valuable addition to the Black Mesa team?" The voice asked.

"And she's probably been dead for years. It's like the base has been maintaining itself for all this time."

"Now there's a scary thought." John said. Everyone silently agreed with him. Something like that would be a bit to close to Skynet for their comfort. The rest of the short ride was quiet except for the recorded voice and Ed dashing from one part of the car to another, trying to absorb all the scenery they were passing.

"Now arriving at sector A command and control facilities. Please stand back from the automated door, and wait for the security officer to confirm your identity. Before exiting the train, be sure to check your area for personal belongings. Thank you, and have a very safe and productive day."

In spite of the fact that there was no security guard the door opened and they found themselves in another transit station, this one with no blast doors or bars guarding it. As they left the terminal they walked into a T-junction of hallways. To the right was a hallway labeled Living Quarters, to the left there was a double label 'Surface' and 'Armory'. Straight ahead was labeled 'Central Command'

"I guess this is home for now." Jet said as he looked around. "Let's drop off our stuff and see what we can find in the computers this place has." The living quarters were built like most apartment buildings would be. There were several halls of individual rooms, enough for everyone to have their own, as well as a cafeteria and lounge area, not unlike what the Bebop had. After dumping their stuff in the lounge they began to pick out the best rooms they could find but they that proved to be impossible.

"All the money they must have spent on this place and the best they could come up with is this." Faye griped. She had set her sights on getting the best room for herself but found that while they were comfortable rooms they were all exactly the same.

"I'm sure if they knew you were coming they would have fixed it up real nice." John replied, smiling at the glare Faye sent his way.

"Yeah, by putting bars on the door to your room." Spike added. When he noticed Faye glaring at him he just shrugged. "I suppose electrifying the door would be easier." The others laughed at that one.

"Let me tell you something lunkhead…" Faye began.

"I guess this means we're officially settled." Jet remarked as he watched the two of them fight. "Who's up for finding more about this place?"

"ME ME ME ME!!" Ed shouted frantically waving her hand.

"I think she speaks for all of us." John said.

"Then grab Tomato and let's check out central command." Jet said. Ed was at his side in an instant, balancing Tomato on her head.

"Come on come on come on!!" She pleaded, tugging on Jet's hand.

"What about them?" Kyle asked, looking over at the still arguing Faye and Spike.

"Leave em." Jet answered. "With any luck they won't notice we're gone and we'll have some peace and quiet." Spike did notice that they were leaving and, getting bored, decided to follow them.

"HEY!! I'm not finished yet!" Faye shouted after Spike now noticing that she was almost alone. Turning bright red from looking so foolish she trudged after them.

Central Command was broken up into three basic sections, Administration with its numerous offices and data storage areas. Communication to monitor all incoming and outgoing transmissions to the base. Finally was the largest area, Security. This was also broken into three sections. One section monitored activity inside the base, one for observing the land surrounding the base, and a third that kept track of all air traffic for almost a hundred miles in every direction. Deciding Security was where they could get a majority of their answers everyone was gathered around a bank of computers in base security, watching Ed hook her own computer up.

"Accessing Black Mesa mainframe." MPU said when the hook up was complete. "Connecting. Decoding in progress. Decoding complete, Black Mesa mainframe is now at your command." Ed giggled at the news and hopped into a chair in front of what looked like the main computer terminal.

"What would Bebop Bebop like the all knowing Ed to tell them?" Ed asked dramatically.

"The most important thing to know is if there's anyone else here." Jet told her. After typing in a few commands she turned around in her chair.

"Everywhere eyes and ears tell Ed and MPU that new play place is ghost town." She announced.

"I guess that's a no." John said. "What about how this place is in such good condition."

"Whatever that voice was called it the Quarantine protocol." Kyle added. "Check under that." Ed typed more commands and a large screen in front of them turned on. Unfortunately it was displaying mostly technical layouts, complex equations and what looked like chemical formulas that quickly scrolled by.

"Can anyone read that stuff?" Spike asked.

"Ed can." Ed announced

"Anyone else?" Faye quickly asked. Everyone was confused enough by what they saw and having Ed explain it would lose them completely.

"I can." Arnold answered.

"Then how about you give us a translation." Kyle said. "A simple one." He quickly added.

"Because it was so well hidden this base was meant to maintain its status as a functional and viable position, even after it was officially closed down. It would be the fallback position for the leaders and scientists of the nation that had originally built it, but only as a last resort. Rather then spend money to maintain the base the quarantine protocol was developed. Using a series of powerful air pumps all the air from the base would be removed, and replaced with only trace amounts of inert gases. In theory this would prevent breakdown of equipment."

"That is one of the dumbest ideas I've ever heard." Faye remarked. "They go through all this just so they can save a few bucks? It doesn't even sound like it would work."

"Yes." Arnold replied. "The cost of building the pumps and making the base sections airtight was a fraction of what it would have been to maintain them by regular means. It also proved to be very effective. Aside from areas that have been compromised by meteor strikes all sections under the protocol have survived completely intact and equipment seems to be in perfect working order."

"Then how about we wander around for a while?" Spike asked. "There's nothing to do just hanging around here so we might as well do some exploring."

"Shouldn't we wait until we know which areas are dangerous and should be avoided before we do that?" John asked.

"The only area that is extremely hazardous is the waste disposal plant." MPU said. "Everywhere else is safer but I advise caution when dealing with unfamiliar terrain."

"All right, It would be a good idea to know the layout of the place." Jet agreed. "But where do we start?"

"Ed knows where Ed wants to go." Ed spoke up. "Ed want's to go see blast off!!" She announced and pointed to the screen. It displayed several angles of a giant rocket engine inside of a blast silo.

"Looks like they never dismantled the old rocket test labs." Jet said, looking at the sector data displayed on a different screen. "They must of left this place in a hurry to, fuel and oxygen are still being stored for it." He stopped as he realized something. "Looks like Ed has a good idea in going down there after all."

"Lots of good stuff to put in Spike person's freezethrowers." Ed put in.

"Freezethrowers?" Kyle asked.

"It's a good a name as any." Jet replied. Spike shrugged in response, he really didn't care what they were called. "And she's right, I'm sure no one is going to care if we take some of the liquid oxygen. But we're not going to set the engine off." He added, noticing Ed's expectant look. "That would use up any spare ammo we would have." Ed looked disappointed but didn't complain. She could understand why it was important that they not do what she wanted so she didn't press it. "I'll go and I want someone else to come with me, just to be safe. Any takers?" An awkward silence followed, with everyone looking at everyone else. "Don't all volunteer at once."

"Why don't you take Arnold?" Spike asked. "You can have him fill the tanks and if any accidents happen he can just shrug it off." Jet frowned.

"You're just suggesting that so you don't have to do any work." He accused.

"Yeah, pretty much." Spike replied nonchalantly. Jet's frown deepened.

"Lucky for you your excuse makes sense." Jet finally said. "How about it Arnold?"

"I'll help in any way I can." Arnold replied.

"Then go get the packs, it's a long walk." Arnold nodded and left. "What do the rest of you intend on doing?"

"I figured I'd take a look at what kind of stuff they have in that arsenal." Kyle said. "See what kind of options we have if the T-1000 actually finds this place."

"I'm with him." Spike added. Faye just rolled her eyes.

"Nothing looks interesting in the place so I guess I'll stay here." She said.

"English translation: there's no gambling and nothing she can steal." John inputted. Ignoring Faye's death glare he continued. "I'd better stay here too. Someone has to keep an eye on the kids." He motioned not only to Meifa and Ed but to Faye as well.

"Just be thankful that there're witnesses around." Faye growled.

"Meifa, I can't really force you but I would feel better if you stayed here for now. Just until we figure out how safe it really is out there." Jet told her.

"It's okay Jet. I don't want to get in anyone's way." Meifa answered.

"You wouldn't." Jet assured her. "But the rocket silo doesn't really look that safe and I would prefer that you don't go with anyone who's trigger happy." He stated, looking at Kyle and Spike. Spike had no real reaction but Kyle looked slightly insulted. Jet knew neither of them would put Meifa in danger but with all the violence she had been around lately being around more gunfire and explosions wasn't really the best idea right now.

"And what does Ed do?" Ed asked.

"You've got the most important job of all Ed." Jet answered. "You're going to stay here and be our eyes and ears. If we get lost and need help you'll need to tell us what way to go."

"Navigator Ed will see all and hear all!" Ed declared as she spun around in the chair. "Give Bebop Bebop best map there is."

"We know you will." Jet told her. "If there's nothing else I suggest we get going."

"There is one more matter of importance." MPU stated. "Many of the doors still have active locks and cannot be opened from here. I have opened all areas that I can and changed the codes needed to open the doors that I cannot. Simply press zero then enter on the code pad and the door will open."

After Arnold returned with the newly dubbed Freezethrowers and all radios were checked and found to be in working order the two groups went their separate ways. Kyle and Spike reached their destination first, they had to climb several flights of stairs and go through three security checkpoints but they eventually found the entrance to the armory. Spike pressed zero and enter on the pad next to the door as instructed and as promised it opened with no difficulty. The inside was dark and knowing room layout probably hadn't changed that much in sixty years Spike reached over just to the side of the door, found a light switch and flipped it. One by one lights in the ceiling began to come on, reaching further down the room as they went. When all of them were on the two got a their first good look at what kind of firepower Black Mesa had to offer.

"This is almost like being back at my old job." Kyle remarked as he began to look at the weapons. The room was like a long hallway and on the right side was an equally long rack of guns and ammunition. On the left was a second rack filled with metal boxes labeled with words that drew Spike right to them.

Danger: High Explosives

Kyle was examining the gun racks as Spike gave the explosives his attention. Without realizing it he was listing the entire inventory and his thoughts out loud.

"Glock 18, .357 Magnum, SPAS 12, MP5. That explains all the nine-millimeter ammo. It's like they were actually expecting to have firefights underground." Though none of these weapons was what one would call under powered they were ideal for fighting inside buildings and underground without fear of overpenetration or ricochets. He paused when he came to the MP5s, noticing something out of place.

"They must have been expecting tanks to." Spike remarked. Kyle turned around and saw Spike holding a small metal tube in one hand and what was without question an RPG rocket in the other. "There's at least twenty here and I'll bet you there's a lot more where they came from." Spike said as he slid the rocket back into its metal storage tube.

"At least that's normal military hardware." Kyle said as he turned back and grabbed an MP5. After Spike put the rocket back Kyle handed him the weapon. "See anything wrong with this picture?" Spike only needed a cursory glance to see what Kyle was talking about.

"I didn't think MP5s had a grenade launcher attached to them." Spike said as he opened the weapon to examine it.

"They don't." Kyle answered. "They're too fragile and would break apart if someone tried firing one. This has to be some kind of fake to scare whoever they were planning to use it against."

"I'm not so sure about that." Spike said as he turned back around. Kyle saw him reach into an already open metal container and pull out a grenade just like the ones that would be used in this type of launcher. "I don't think they'd have these things around if they didn't have anything to load them into." He placed the grenade into the launcher and snapped it shut. "Perfect fit." He said, handing the gun back to Kyle.

"Only one way to find out for sure." Kyle said as he grabbed a clip for the gun and inserted it. "We're not that far from the surface so we might as well give these things a test."

"We might was well give these a try to." Spike said, tossing two small bags at Kyle's feet and a remote control that had one large button in the center of it to him. Kyle was able to ID them quickly. Satchel charges, remote controlled.

"What about you?" Kyle asked as he put the remote detonator in his pocket. He was going to need both hands to carry all of this.

"You don't store the ammo unless you store the gun to." Spike said, walking over to a longer metal container on the same side as the explosives. Unlocking the clasps he opened it and both saw a green, fairly high tech rocket launcher, complete with scope and laser sighting. Spike lifted it out and placed it on one shoulder, surprised at how lightweight it was. "Let's see if those old timers knew what they were doing when they made this stuff." Spike said as he grabbed two ammo tubes with his free hand. The two left the room and began following the signs that led to the surface.

Security Command

"Why can't Ed go exploring?" Ed asked for what seemed like the millionth time. It had taken only five minutes for her inquisitive nature to become overwhelming and despite the fact she could see almost the entire base already she wanted to get out and see it for herself.

"Because you need to stay here and operate the equipment. You'll be able to look at everything from in here." John answered, trying to reason with Ed. That was proving to be an exercise in futility.

"MPU can look and see just as good as Ed. So can John person. No fun to look at places in pictures, Ed wants to meet places in person." When John didn't immediately answer Ed went into her sales pitch again. "Ed will only be gone for a minute. Come back quick if you call. Ed will be really really really _**reallllllly**_ careful. Promise Promise."

"Ed..." John began

"PLLEAASSSEEEEE?!?!" She was now giving him what most parents would refer to as 'the old sad soulful eyes routine' and didn't even seem close to giving up. He turned to Faye for help.

"Don't look at me." She said. "I'm the one who told you to ignore her." So much for getting help. At least it gave him an opportunity to get out of this.

"Tell you what Ed. You can go but only if you take Faye with you."

"WHAT?!" Faye shouted.

"YAAAYYY!!" Ed shouted at the same time and rushed over to Faye. "Let's go Faye Faye! Ed wants to look at neat stuff." She said, trying to drag Faye by the hand.

"NOW WAIT A MINUTE!!" Faye shouted, trying to fight/ignore Ed while yelling at John. "Give me one reason I have to get stuck doing this!!"

"If you insist..!" John almost shouted back.

"I'll go with her." A quiet voice said. All noise in the room stopped and they turned to see Meifa quietly standing off to the side. In the chaos of the moment it had been easy to forget that she was there.

"You don't have to do that Meifa." John told her, slightly embarrassed at his behavior in front of her. "I'm sure Faye can tolerate Ed for a little walk." Faye started to protest but John shot her a look that said 'Shut up and agree!' She was about to explode again but Meifa spoke first.

"It's all right, I want to go. I haven't done anything to help so far and I don't want to feel like a burden."

"You're not a burden." John assured her. He could see she really wanted to help and if nothing else it would take her mind off the situation for a while. After thinking it over he made his decision. "Okay, you can take Ed and look around a little. But.." He quickly added. "don't go anywhere that we don't know about already. Ed, no going off on your own. You stick with Meifa and if she tells you to do something you do it."

"Ed will listen really good." Ed promised. John nodded his approval and Ed ran right for the door, apparently forgetting what she had just been told. She opened the door but instead of running out she looked back at Meifa. "Come on." She said, excited but not at all impatient. "Lots of neat stuff to see." She insisted. Meifa smiled at Ed's excitement and followed her out the door, followed closely by Ein. After the door shut John turned to Faye.

"We can beat up on each other all we want but we can't let Meifa get caught in the middle. The last thing we need to do is ignore her and make her feel useless."

"I wasn't trying to do that." Faye replied, calming down slightly. She was still angry but she could see his point. It was weird but deep down she didn't want to be mean to the girl anymore then he did. (He's making my conscience come back again.) She thought with some amusement/annoyance.

"I know." John said in understanding "I'm just saying that..." The conversation was put on hold as one of the control panels started beeping angrily and flashing red. "What now?" Pressing the button that was flashing the screen brought up a picture of the disturbance. On a crater dotted helipad there were two figures that they recognized as Spike and Kyle. The disturbance itself had been caused by a now collapsed guard tower that, judging from the smoke and blast damage, had been hit with explosives. Kyle was lowering his weapon but what caught Faye and John's attention was the rocket launcher Spike was carrying. "You're kidding."

"Forty Woolongs says lunkhead is the first one to blow himself up." Faye stated as she sat down next to John, their argument now forgotten.

On the helipad the two were admiring the destruction Kyle had just caused.

"Impact grenades, not to shabby." He said as he opened the launcher and let the empty shell drop to the ground. Switching the MP5 off of safety he took aim at chunk of rubble and fired a three round burst. The fact that the gun could fire at all was surprising but as a bonus there was almost no muzzle climb. Switching to full auto Kyle emptied the entire fifty round clip in one long burst. After the gun clicked empty they could see all the bullets in one small grouping. "Why the hell were we never issued hardware like this?" He asked, impressed by the weapon's performance.

"Probably because it's the best option." Spike remarked as Kyle threw the two satchel charges at the tower rubble.

"Probably." Kyle agreed as he flicked open the cover to the remote's button. "Fire in the hole." He warned and pushed the button. A larger explosion ripped through the area and formed a small crater.

"Not bad." Spike said as he opened an ammo tube and inserted a rocket into the front of the launcher. Taking aim at a still intact guard tower Spike looked through the scope and put the crosshairs near the center of the tower. Pulling the trigger Spike saw the rocket literally jump out of the launcher and stay in midair for a split second before its engine ignited. It flew right at the tower and struck just where Spike had aimed. The explosion dwarfed the first two and blew out the entire midsection of the tower, sending it crashing to the ground. "I could get to like having one of these." He commented.

"Big surprise." Kyle responded. "Think that laser sight still works?"

"It should." Spike said as he loaded his second rocket. Taking aim at the helipad's control tower he turned on the laser and set it base of a RADAR dish. "Ten says I can blow that thing off the roof but not damage anything but the base of it."

"Bet." Kyle said. Spike may have been good but Kyle didn't think he was this good. Spike pulled the trigger and the rocket took off. Taking his eye off the scope to get a better look Spike shifted the launcher to the right slightly and saw that the rocket was going wide right of it's target.

"Damn!" Spike cursed. Knowing he lost the bet he lowered the launcher so now the barrel was pointing almost straight down. In response the rocket went into a nosedive and detonated when it slammed into the ground. The explosion was a good distance away from Spike and Kyle but the shock wave from it was still enough to knock both of them off their feet.

"What the hell was that?!" Kyle asked as he sat up.

"They had all the best weapons to choose from." Spike said calmly as he lay on his back. "So do they ask for launchers that use lasers for lock on capability?" He asked as he sat up. "No. They had to ask for ones that have TRACKING LASERS!!!" He shouted and angrily threw the launcher.

Back in Security Command John put a twenty Woolong bill into Faye's open hand, not looking at her 'I told you so' smile.

"This is only twenty." Faye protested when she looked at the money. "The bet was forty."

"You lost twenty to me earlier." John replied. "That makes us even." Faye humphed but didn't say anything as she put the money in her pocket. As the two watched Spike and Kyle pick themselves up they heard the door open, followed by a familiar bark. "So have fun?" John asked as he turned around in his chair. If he had any other questions he forgot them when he got a good look at the new arrivals.

"Security officer Ed reporting for duty!" Ed exclaimed and giving a perfect salute. The fact that she could even salute at all was something of an accomplishment. She was now wearing a black armored vest that was so large on her she had to keep both arms straight out to the side to keep it from sliding off. Even then the very bottom of the vest was no more then half an inch above her ankles. On her head she wore an odd looking blue and gray helmet, also far too large for her. In fact when she saluted the helmet dropped over her eyes but didn't fall off. She paid it no mind and held her salute. "What does John person and Faye Faye think?"

"Think about what?" Faye asked as she turned around in her own chair. Like John she was silenced by the even odder then usual looking Ed. That silence lasted for several seconds before John gave an answer to Ed's question.

"Pfffft… HA HA HA HA!!" John was actually doubled over with laughter and Faye was trying desperately not to join him, covering her face and turning around. She had sworn never to encourage any of Ed's antics and laughing would definitely be a sign of encouragement. However even turned around Ed and the others could still see her shaking as she tried to, unsuccessfully, contain her own fit of giggles.

"Ed is glad John person and Faye Faye like it." Ed said as she pushed the helmet back up.

"Don't… mention it…" John said, trying to stop laughing. He looked back up at Ed and couldn't help but start up again. After finally being able to calm down enough to talk straight John took a more critical look at what Ed was wearing. "Can I take a look at those?" Instead of answering Ed tossed him the helmet. She then crouched down, putting the vest on the floor, and jumped right out of it.

"Ed knew John person would like Ed's presents." Ed stated as she picked the vest up and brought it over to John. Taking the vest John found that while it was bulky it was also very light. The front and back were divided into square sections of varying size and knocking on one with his knuckles John discovered that they were solid insertion plates, much stronger then just kevlar.

"Not quite as good as the ISSP vests but not bad for something so old." John commented as he put the vest over his head. He snapped the front and back together and while it wasn't the most comfortable fit it did give him the feeling of being well protected. He took a closer look at the helmet and decided that without some sort of visor it was impractical for combat situations. Plus the fact that _anyone_ who wore it would look ridiculous, not just Ed.

"Can you use it?" Meifa asked, adding her first comment to the conversation. "I didn't know if any of them would be able to fit you."

"You found these?" John asked. He had assumed that Ed would be the one to find something like this when no one was looking for it.

"Yep Yep." Ed confirmed. "She found very secret place while we were exploring."

"There are more of those vests there, and weapons." Meifa added.

"Sounds like you hit the jackpot." John said. "Could you show me where it is?" Meifa nodded. "Good. Ed you stay here and keep an eye on things."

"What about me?" Faye asked, annoyed.

"Ed knows more about using this stuff then you do. Just let her do all the work." That sounded just fine to Faye so she just turned around and went back to watching Spike and Kyle stumbling back inside.

The very secret place was actually a smaller security office tucked into a corner near the transit station. At the front was a desk with several computer monitors on it. Farther back were several open lockers containing duplicates of the body armor John now wore. Next to those lockers was a wall-mounted gun rack holding several combat shotguns.

"We couldn't tell if the guns were loaded so we never touched them." Meifa said as he took one of them off the rack.

"That was the right thing to do." He told her as he checked the slide. "It's empty." Rummaging around in one of the lockers he found two boxes of 12 gauge shotgun shells, giving him a total of twenty-four. He also noticed that it was a different type of shell then what was used in the auto shotgun he currently had, meaning that the one clip he had was it. "Better take two of them." He said as he put the shells into his pocket and reached for a second shotgun. Attaching straps to them so he could carry the guns on his back John finally grabbed one of the vests and handed it to Meifa.

"Do you want me to carry more?" She asked as John slung both of the shotguns over his shoulder.

"No thanks. I can handle this." He answered, picking up two more vests. "You really found a gold mine here. No telling how much all of this is going to help us." He meant every word of it and was glad to see Meifa smile at the statement.

Faye and Ed turned towards the door when they heard it open and saw John and Meifa walk in, their arms loaded.

"Find anything useful?" Faye asked sarcastically.

"Yes, as a matter of fact." John answered as he put the vests down. "We even brought you a present." He said as he took one of the shotguns off his back and handed it to her. He then dug into his pockets and took out two handfuls of shells. "Twelve is the limit. You want more you'll need to ask Spike and Kyle when they get back." He dropped his voice to a whisper before continuing. "Before you ask no you don't have a vest. That's because you and I both know we couldn't get you into one even with a crowbar." He added in a serious tone but with a teasing look in his eyes.

"You didn't have to point that out." Faye hissed as she turned red with embarrassment and gave John a shove. "Idiot." She added as she sat back down. John smirked at her reaction and was about to sit down next to her when his radio came to life.

"Can anyone hear me?" Jet's voice asked.

"Loud and clear Jet." John answered. "You two in trouble?"

"Kind of." Jet answered. "We finally made it over to the silo and were in the control room right now but we've hit a snag. The computer told us that the oxygen was stored in this area but what it didn't say was that there was more then one level to this place." Inside the control room Jet and Arnold were looking through glass that had to be over a foot thick into the silo itself. The massive rocket engine hung from the ceiling and dominated the view but inside there were two more levels of walkways and doors leading to who knows where. The main control panel said that while electricity was flowing to the engine fuel and oxygen were not.

"I'll get Ed right on it." John said and nodded towards Ed, who went into action. As she typed several schematics of the silo came up. "All right here's what you do. There should be a second door in there that'll lead into the silo. Once you're inside go one level down and out that door. Follow that path and it'll lead you right to the fuel stores."

"Got it." Jet said and the turned off the radio.

Earth orbit: That same time

The T-1000 had been orbiting Earth for several hours now, waiting. He couldn't track the Bebop itself with all the other ships and debris but he could monitor radio traffic just fine. When he had set up interference of their radios back on Mars he knew that the humans would change the frequency so that they couldn't be tracked. What they didn't know was that the T-1000 had used that time to scan their communicators and record every frequency they were capable of operating on. That narrowed the search considerably and he had been monitoring the most likely frequencies the humans would choose as soon as he reached Earth. He had gotten lucky and got a weak but still solid signal. It was brief but he managed to track it with reasonable accuracy, it was a couple of hundred square miles on one of the landmasses but time was one thing he had plenty of. Activating the engines of his stolen craft the T-1000 began a descent into Earth's atmosphere, and towards the prey he had been tracking.


	7. More Exploring and Unexpected Company

Chapter 7: More Exploring and Unexpected Company

"You know every once in a while I think about the reasons why I became a bounty hunter." Jet said after he and Arnold took two steps out of the airlock they had just passed through. "Most days I tell myself I do more good then just being a normal cop, and that it's more exciting. On days like this..." He looked over the edge of the platform they were on. "I'm convinced it's because I'm an idiot." They were standing outside of the silo itself on one end of a metal bridge that led to the fuel and oxygen storage. They were also at least fifty feet in the air, above not a visible floor but a lake of glowing green…something. It looked like something radioactive had sprung a leak and now made falling an even worse scenario. If the fall didn't kill you that sludge sure would. That brought another question to mind. "You sure we're safe up here?"

"Yes." Arnold replied. "There are only trace amounts of radiation on this level but contamination steadily increases at lower heights."

"Then we'll just have to do our best to stay up here." Jet said, turning to the problem at hand, the bridge. "Think that'll be able to hold you?" Arnold scanned every inch of the bridge. Its construction was sound and the metal was in good condition but it didn't look like it was made to handle heavy weight centered on one spot.

"Unknown." He finally answered. Before Jet could suggest that he should do this alone Arnold continued. "Only one way to find out." Before Jet could stop him Arnold started walking across. His heavy footsteps thudded on the metal bridge and echoed throughout silo but it did not collapse. Once on the other side he turned around and scanned the bridge again. "I've caused no damage and it is safe for you to cross."

"I think you've been hanging around Spike too much." Jet said as he made his way across the bridge. "Doing something that dangerous on the fly is something I'd expect from him, not someone who calculates and analyzes everything so much."

"Calculations and analysis can only go so far." Arnold replied. "I was only able to make an estimation of what might happen if I crossed that bridge, and in the end the only way to know what scenario would be correct was to cross it and leave it to chance."

"Chance?" Jet asked. "No offence but I thought things like you didn't believe in chance."

"What you call chance is nothing more than a slightly different way of thinking in binary. Something either will happen or it will not. I would have made it or I would have fallen, and unlike you I would have been able to climb back up and try something else."

"Now I _know_ you've been hanging around Spike too much." Jet said. Arnold didn't reply as they made their way down a hallway with two large pipes running along the walls. Soon they came to the main pressure control station, the door leading to the main pressure station at least. Jet inputted zero but when he pressed enter the door opened only about three inches before the electronics controlling the door's hydraulics decided to short themselves out. It stopped and left far too little space for either of them to slip through. Not needing to be asked Arnold stepped forward, put his shoulder to the door and began to push. The hydraulics groaned and hissed in protest but Arnold was able to swing the door open the rest of the way.

"Over there." Arnold said, pointing to an orange valve that was labeled O2 Emergency Pressure Release. There were several such safety valves between the tanks and the engine but this was the last one before the two substances actually went to the booster. When opened the liquid would be pumped into several smaller tanks for storage until the problem could be fixed. After opening up one of the grates on the floor Jet climbed down, removed the pipe leading to the first spare tank, and hooked up the first Freezethrower via some spare insulated tubing from the Bebop. After climbing back out of the floor he walked to the other side of the room.

"Just make sure you don't pump in too much." He told Arnold, who was holding the valve.

"I won't." Arnold assured him. He could see the gauge on the Freezethrower from where he was and would be able to stop the flow before it would burst. Twisting the valve only minutely he began to fill the tank. It was going well until the needle got to half full. Both Jet and Arnold began to hear a cracking sound and with a loud bang the tank ruptured, white gas venting into the air.

"Damn." Jet growled as Arnold shut the valve and went over to the ruined weapon. "The insulation failed didn't it?" After picking up the ruined tank and examining it Arnold nodded an affirmative. "Just great. We'll have to try the other ones just in case." The two others filled with no further problems and they now had two ready to use Freezethrowers. Arnold hefted one onto his back and Jet took the other.

"Better give these things a trial run." Jet said as he aimed the barrel at the bottom hinge of the door. He fired a quick burst and though some of it turned back to gas a jet of liquid came out of the weapon and hit the intended target. After waiting a second for the vapor to clear Jet saw that the hinge now had what looked like a coating of ice on it. Wanting to see just how effective the shot was Jet kicked the hinge with the heel of his boot. The metal shattered like glass and fell to the ground in pieces. "I think we can consider that a success." He stated. Arnold aimed his own Freezethrower at the one that had been ruined and repeated the process. When he could see the tank again he gave it a slight kick that, under normal conditions, would have sent it skidding across the floor. Instead it shattered in a similar fashion to the door hinge, sending frozen bits across the room.

"There are no problems with this one either." Arnold reported. "As long as the insulation does not fail they will remain functional."

"Let's just hope that doesn't happen while we're wearing one." Jet replied.

Security Command

John had just put away his radio after talking to Jet when the door of the command center again hissed open. Everyone looked and was greeted with the sight of Spike and Kyle, covered in dirt and looking slightly banged up. While Meifa, Ein and even Ed looked on in confusion John and Faye started to grin, with Faye's smile turning into a knowing smirk.

"Looks like you two had fun." She commented.

"Oh yeah, it was a real blast." Spike deadpanned. Not letting anyone comment on just how bad the joke was he continued. "What's with the new suit John?"

"Meifa and Ed found them while they were looking around earlier." John answered. "I got one for each of you and Jet."

"You can keep mine." Spike said dismissively. As well as they knew Spike John and Kyle still gave him an 'are you nuts?' look. On the other side Faye, Ed and Ein looked less then surprised. "It'll only slow me down and throw off my timing." He explained. "If this isn't enough to get me out alive I doubt any vest will make a difference." He opened his coat and brought out one of the modified MP5s from where it was hanging by a shoulder strap. Kyle also had an MP5 strapped to his back but it was angled so that only the top of the gun could be seen. Both John and Faye now took note of the attached grenade launcher and figured out why Spike had chosen that particular gun. Of course that meant….

"Uh Spike, how many grenades are you carrying?" John asked. With the coat he was wearing the answer could be quite a few. Hearing the nervousness in John's voice Spike smiled before answering.

"Enough." He answered. That made Faye and John nervously back up half a step. If Spike thought he had enough explosives that meant he was carrying an amount that would put most demolition teams to shame.

"Don't worry, he only took ten of them." Kyle said. That wasn't very reassuring to the others.

"I didn't have anymore room only because of the ones I already had on me." Spike clarified. Now that _really_ wasn't reassuring to everyone else, especially Ein, who whined and hid behind Meifa's legs. "Thanks for the vote of confidence mutt."

"This might come as a surprise to you Spike but most people find it a bit weird when someone turns themselves into a human bomb." John told him.

"Hey, if I blow up at least I won't feel anything." Spike said with a shrug.

"For those of you who don't want to vaporize yourself." Kyle said, cutting off the argument. "We got some new toys for you to play with." He held out his hands, presenting John and Faye with a Glock 18. "Our guns might use the same type of ammo but the clips aren't interchangeable." He told John. "And even though you already have a Glock I'm willing to bet having rapid fire is enough to convince you to trade up." Unlike most pistols that only had a safe and fire settings the military version of this Glock had the additional option of firing bursts. Faye and John accepted the pistols offered to them, and Kyle handed them two clips each, along with a holster should they want it.

"Looks like those vests weren't the only things you managed to scavenge." Spike commented, noticing the shotgun that was lying on a control panel and the one leaning on the chair next to John.

"I was going to ask what you wanted but I guess that answers that." Kyle said. "You find any ammo for them?"

"A little," John answered. "but not enough for a sustained firefight."

"No problem." Kyle said. "There's plenty down in the armory and between the vest pockets and the ammo belts we found the two of you should be set for almost anything."

"Well have fun with that." Spike said as he turned back to the door. "I'm going to go wander around some more. Call me if anything exciting happens."

"Can Ed go to?!" Ed asked excitedly.

"No you can't Ed." John answered for Spike. Knowing the pleading that was sure to come John quickly gave her an excuse. "You don't want to get blown up if he trips and falls do you?" Ed looked at John then over to Spike.

"Will Ed get blown up?" She asked, not sounding afraid of the possibility, just curious.

"With what I've got I'll probably blow up if I sneeze too hard." Spike told her as the door closed behind him.

"Don't worry Ed, when this is over you can do all the exploring you want." John promised her.

"Hold on!!" Faye shouted.

"Wherever Ed wants to?" Ed asked, oblivious to Faye.

"As long as it isn't dangerous." John said. "In the meantime you need to stay here ok?" Ed nodded in response. "Good. Kyle, you keep an eye on things here for a while." He said and picked up the two unloaded shotguns. "We can't let Spike hog all the fun stuff now can we?" He asked Faye, who just rolled her eyes and headed towards the door. As John followed her out Kyle picked up one of the vests and started to put it on. As he snapped it into place he tested the fit. Spike wasn't wrong, this would slow him down a little but he'd rather have that then take a bullet to the chest.

"Kyle person looks like real cowboy now." Ed commented when Kyle had finished adjusting the vest.

"Huh?" Kyle asked, looking down at himself. To him it looked like he was one step away from looking like one of those rent-a-cops (and if he had worn that helmet he saw lying on the floor he would have) then noticed what Ed was looking at. On his side, in a holster strapped to his leg he had gotten from the armory, was a large .357 Magnum revolver. Nobody had noticed it before, probably because of how he looked after the 'tests' on the surface. In a way Ed was right, it did kind of make him look a bit like the cowboys you saw in the movies. "Oh that. It might not be as powerful as the last one I had but this should give even that liquid freak problems when it hits him. Gotta protect the townsfolk after all." He said in his worst cowboy voice and pretended to do a quick-draw. Ed and Meifa laughed at the impression.

"That was really lousy." They heard Jet say as the door hissed open.

"What do you expect? I'm a cop, not an actor." Kyle replied as he re-holstered his gun. "Everything go all right?"

"Almost." Jet answered as he and Arnold walked into the room. "We lost one of the packs but the other two work just fine. With any luck these will be more then enough to freeze that guy until we figure out what to do with him. Where did the others go?" He asked.

"Faye and John went to get some extra firepower and Spike went to have a look around." Kyle answered.

"Just look around?" Jet asked suspiciously. "Knowing Spike he probably just wants to try out what's in that arsenal."

"Oh I don't think you have to worry about that." Kyle said, absentmindedly brushing some derbies out of his hair. Deciding that he didn't want to know the details Jet didn't ask.

A few minutes later John and Faye came back; both looking loaded for bear. John had filled his vest's pockets with extra shotgun shells and Glock clips, and even had a couple of grenades attached to his belt. Faye's attire offered less, a lot less, in the way of pockets but she had taken not one but two ammo belts that she now wore around her waist. Like John she had stuffed them with as many extra shells and clips as possible. She, like Kyle and John, now wore a leg holster, which held the new, larger Glock she had been given. Both had their now loaded shotguns strapped to their backs so it would be easy to just grab the weapons and start blasting.

"So how do we look?" Faye asked, noticing the odd looks they, mostly she, was getting.

"Like what most people expect bounty hunters to look like." Kyle answered. "The only thing missing are the two bullet belts across the chest." One of the well known stereotypes about bounty hunters was that they were heavily armed, half (or all) crazy lunatics hell bent only on collecting money.

"Told you they'd say that." Faye said to John.

"At least you didn't go with the rocket launcher, that would have given Spike a run for his money." John answered. "Though it would have looked a lot cooler." Cool would not have been the word the others would have used if Faye had come back with the launcher on her back and rockets hanging from her belt. Frightening beyond belief would definitely be a much better description.

"So glad you think that." Faye replied sarcastically. "What is it with men and explosives?"

"We just have very simple tastes." Kyle answered. "Ask Spike, he'll tell you the same thing."

Spike would have agreed with Kyle wholeheartedly, if he wasn't lost at the moment. Okay technically not lost, he was still in Black Mesa, somewhere. He had been walking for about twenty minutes and he _thought_ he had been paying attention to where he was going. Was it his fault all these corridors looked the same? Or that the signs weren't very helpful? How the hell was he supposed to know what Section A-456 meant?!? No, he decided, it was the fault of whoever had built this place for not being smart enough to use actual _names _and _locations_ on these damn signs. That meant that he could ask for help and it wouldn't be a blow to his pride. The question was how could he let them know where he was? After taking a few more turns he found sign that was actually in English. It was labeled Waste Disposal/Surface access. At least now he knew where he was. Deciding to go up and see what was on the surface he started up the stairs and pulled out his radio.

"Anybody there?" He asked, not really knowing who would pick up.

"Sorry but Ed and friends are out to lunch right now. If you would like to leave a message please wait for the sound of the beep." Ed's voice answered. She paused for a second before saying "BEEP!" Spike gave his radio a funny look but then again he supposed he was asking for something like that.

"Give that back Ed!" Jet's voice said over the radio.

"But Ed hasn't taken message yet." Ed protested. There were sounds of a struggle for the radio before Jet's voice came back.

"Something the matter Spike? I have a feeling this isn't a social call."

"Well kinda," Spike answered. "You see this place has some really lousy signs…"

"He's lost?" A voice from the background, Faye's, asked.

"No I am not lost!" Spike defended. If there was one person he was never going to admit defeat to it was her. "It's just that there are so many damn hallways…" Now he heard others laughing, not just Faye. "I'm glad that they find this so funny." He said, reserved to the fact it would be a while before he lived this one down. "But could I get a little help here?"

"Sure thing Spike." Jet answered, not laughing but sounding very amused. "There anything around you that'll help?"

"I'm near Waste Disposal and heading for the surface." Spike replied.

"Okay that should be easy enough to… now what?!" Spike could hear commotion, and an alarm, in the background and knew it was the cause of Jet's sudden demeanor change.

Back at Security Command the computer controlling the RADAR was flashing a warning on its main screen and giving off a shrill, beeping alarm. Everyone gathered around it as Ed sat down and began typing commands. The screen changed to a basic RADAR readout and showed an unidentified object in the upper atmosphere, just within its range, and coming in fast, right at them.

"So what is it?" Faye asked. "A meteor?"

"Can't be." Jet answered. "It keeps on adjusting its pitch and speed to stay on course."

"I don't suppose this is just some guy that's having engine trouble and heading here is weird coincidence?" Kyle asked. The RADAR began searching its database to identify the craft but it couldn't find a match. Only after going through the files MPU had transferred to it was identification possible. It was an ISSP fighter, and he was completely alone. The descent was controlled so it wasn't crashing, and there was nothing coming over the radio so whoever was piloting it knew where he was going. And since there was only one reason for anyone to come straight at Black Mesa that meant…

"The son of a bitch found us." John said. A second later a new voice came from their radios.

"I know you're hiding in that decrepit base." Three people recognized that voice. For two it was the voice of an old friend, one that didn't belong to the thing that was using it. To the third it was the voice of the inhuman monster she had seen in that street on Mars. The T-1000, for whatever reason, was talking to them. "I also know you can hear me, so listen well. Radical Edward is among you, and he is the only one I want. Give me him, and you will be permitted to live. Act rationally and do not throw away your lives for the sake of a _**worthless**__**child**_!" Everyone noticed when he talked about Ed he seemed to almost lose control but that wasn't what needed to be focused on right now. Jet was about to shout his reply to the T-1000's 'offer' when Spike's calm voice beat him to it.

"How about option number three." He suggested. "You take that offer of yours, and shove it up your ass."

"Since you want to die so badly you'll be the first!" An even angrier sounding T-1000 promised.

"Well then why wait?" Spike asked. Over the radio they heard the sound of gunfire, and of a jet engine.

It was only a matter of time before the humans used their radios again and gave away their exact location. Now that there was a strong and clear signal the T-1000 had no problem tracking it back to its source. Long-range scans indicated some sort of complex, most likely a military base. Its concealment made it an ideal hiding place but the human's ignorance had nullified that. He only had one primary target and would get to it much faster if the other humans didn't interfere, and knowing the selfishness that the species ran on he offered them a deal.

Spike had been on the surface when the T-1000 made his demand, and was able to see the fighter he was flying. Deciding to handle this like he handled any situation, head on, he started firing into the air to get the machine's attention. He got it and the fighter angled itself for a strafing run. The T-1000 saw the human stand his ground while he reloaded and aimed his weapon, a submachine gun, and for a second thought Spike had lost his mind. Spike proved he was still sane, despite all evidence to the contrary, and pulled the second trigger on his gun. The grenade fired and struck the fighter right on the cockpit, sending the craft up in a fireball. Spike dove to the ground as the ship passed over him and looked back as it came to a skidding halt about a hundred feet away from him. He didn't waste any time jumping to his feet and running towards the nearest building, to get away from both the burning ship and its sure to be pissed off occupant when he got out. The second one proved to be the more immediate of his concerns as bullets started whizzing by his head.

Security Command

"So do we try and help him?" Kyle asked as they listened to the events unfold over the radio.

"It'll take us at least ten minutes to get there, even with Ed guiding us." Jet answered. "By then they'll be someplace else and we're going to end up chasing them all over the base. The best option right now is to help Spike lose that thing and get back here so we can fight it on our own terms."

As it was Spike already was already fighting the T-1000 on his own terms, kinda. He was ducking and dodging between giant vats filled with god only knew what, occasionally exchanging fire with the liquid Terminator. Spike didn't know what was in those vats but whatever it was it made the smell of the Bebop's backed up toilet seem like air freshener.

(What the hell did they bother saving all this crap for anyway?) Spike asked himself as he continued to move through the plant as quietly as he could while loading a second grenade into the launcher. When he had first come inside he was surprised to see that the place looked like it was the size of a sports stadium, only filled with vats that contained stuff that was guaranteed to have a very negative effect on a person's life span. If this was waste **disposal** why the heck was it still around? As he continued to question the intelligence of the people who built this place and keep one step ahead of the T-1000 his radio started up again.

"This isn't the best time." He hissed. He didn't know why. It wasn't like he was giving away his position anyway. He could hear the T-1000's footsteps clear as day so it was safe to say they knew where the other one was.

"I know." Jet's voice answered. "But you're not going to get very far without help."

"Hold that thought." Spike answered as he looked at the ground. He could see a human shaped shadow coming towards him from the other side of the tank vat he was hiding behind. Taking one of his regular grenades out from his pants pocket he tossed it around the edge without pulling the pin. He readied the MP5 and when he heard the sound of the grenade clinking on the ground he stepped out from behind his hiding place and faced the T-1000.

The T-1000 had known the human was behind the vat and had calculated every avenue of escape, every possible scenario the human would try. Or at least he thought he had. A round object came from where the human was and it took only a nanosecond to identify it as a grenade. That had been expected. What had not been expected was the human actually stepping out into the blast area and leveling its weapon at him. That confused the robot long enough for Spike to aim and pull the second trigger on the MP5. There was a thump and a dull splat sound as the grenade hit the T-1000 in the chest, burying itself almost halfway through. There must have been a slow burning fuse or something because there was actually enough time for the T-1000 to look down at the grenade in its chest, then back up at Spike. The look of shocked realization on the machine's face would be something Spike would forever consider one of the funniest things he ever saw, but he only could see it for a split second before the grenade ignited.

Most of the explosion was contained within the T-1000 so the worst Spike had to deal with was the flash, but he was able to shield his eyes in time so he was able to see the immediate aftermath. It was possibly the most surreal thing Spike had ever seen, and that was saying something. The explosion had literally ripped the T-1000's torso in two. The smaller part was made up of one arm connected to the hips by a thin section of liquid metal. The other side, that was a real winner. The other arm was had been forced down by the explosion and looked like it was attached where the kidney's were. And its head, its head was now hanging sideways, almost upside down, on another strip of liquid metal. If that wasn't weird enough for you the head was also looking directly at Spike, and trying to talk. Spike didn't wait around to see what it had to say. The T-1000 was already reforming and his best shot turned out to be a bust so he decided to fall back and think of a better plan a.k.a 'running like hell'. Noticing a ladder that seemed to lead up and out of the room Spike ran for it and started climbing, not even looking back at the reforming T-1000.

Once the T-1000 was whole again the first thing it did was retrieve his gun. The extra clips he had been carrying were destroyed in the explosion but the pistol had merely been thrown out of his hand. Checking the ammunition he found that he had only eight shots left, and that meant a change of plans was in order. He looked where Spike had fled and then around the room for other exit points. There were several and one looked like led to the same area where Spike was. Better yet it looked like it would put him on a higher level then the human. The high ground was always an advantage in a firefight so the T-1000 went for the second ladder.

"If wasn't for the fact that the dickhead that designed this place was already dead I swear I'd kill him myself." Spike muttered to himself as he walked into his new surroundings. In the next room he had found himself on a metal walkway that was suspended above even more tanks filled with that green noxious junk. He also saw several more walkways crisscrossing the room, held in place by metal support beams that ran from the floor to the ceiling. Some were beneath him, others above him, all leading to various rooms and hallways. Before he could curse out everyone who had something to do with this place his radio went off again.

"Spike, are you still there?" Jet's voice asked. "The cameras where you are went down and we've been hearing explosions."

"I'm here." Spike answered, deciding it was safe to answer. "I was just playing a game of catch the grenade with our friend. Didn't work as well as I hoped it would. He's probably really ticked now to." He added as he cautiously moved down the walkway.

Security Command

"I thought you guys couldn't get angry." Faye said to Arnold in response to Spike's statement. "Only act like you can."

"Terminators cannot become angry." Arnold agreed. "And can only act in such a way so to better accomplish known objectives."

"Well getting mad isn't going to help him any if we already know he's trying to kill us. And I don't think even Skynet would have programmed this thing to have a vendetta. That would just make it prone to mistakes." Spike said. He had been able to hear the entire conversation but unknown to him someone on one of the higher walkways was also listening in as he tried to get Spike into his line of fire.

"So that means he really is getting angry." Jet said. Terminators could fake emotions very well but to everyone it sounded like it this was the real deal, from the encounter on Mars until right now.

"Yes." Arnold confirmed. "It is harder to tell then with a human but the variations in the tones, pitch, and stress of the T-1000's voice prove it is truly expressing the emotion of anger."

"That's impossible." John stated. "The only machines that have emotions are MPU and…." He stopped as realization hit and the others looked over at him.

"Hold on a minute." Spike said, also realizing what John was getting at. "You're saying that this thing 'is' Skynet?" Nobody got a chance to answer him as he heard something above him move and without even looking up started running. His instincts had been right and bullets began to ricochet around him, throwing off sparks when they hit the walkway. Ducking behind a metal support beam he began to load a third grenade into the launcher and waited for the gunfire to stop. It stopped before he was ready and to his surprise he didn't hear a gun being reloaded but words being spoken.

"How remarkable. You animals really are _**almost**_ intelligent aren't you? That's exactly what he's saying." The voice was now completely different. Instead of imitating the man he had killed the T-1000 was now speaking with the voice of the mad supercomputer they thought had been destroyed. Spike didn't have much time to dwell on that as something clanked onto his walkway and slide towards him. Knowing distractions were the last thing he needed he switched off his radio and put it away. Peering out he saw that the object was an empty handgun and he had looked just in time to see the T-1000 leap from the walkway it was onto his. Deciding not to ask why he had just been given an easy target Spike stepped out of his hiding place and fired another grenade. This time the T-1000 was ready and twisted its body so the grenade went sailing past him and detonated in the doorway Spike had come from.

"So much for that." Spike said as the T-1000 turned back towards him. It held up its right arm and began to shift it into the shape of a small scythe blade. It rushed forward and in response Spike pulled and held the primary trigger of the MP5, sending a steady stream of bullets ripping into the liquid Terminator. The small rounds were unable to halt the charge and the T-1000 brought its arm down in a slashing motion. Spike stepped back and tried to use the MP5 to protect himself but the liquid metal proved to be stronger then the mostly plastic gun and shattered it. Undeterred by his miss the T-1000 reached out with his still normal hand, managed to grab Spike's overcoat, and raised his blade arm, determined to cut his head off. Spike slipped out of the coat and made a controlled fall backwards just as the T-1000 swung, making the blade just miss his hair. Not giving the machine time to recover Spike braced his hands and kicked the T-1000 in the chest with both feet as hard as he could. The unexpected move made the T-1000 stumble back several steps, allowing Spike to jump to his feet. He saw that the T-1000 now had two indentations of his shoes in its chest where he had kicked him. Like a balloon the dents expanded back out and hid any trace they were ever there. Glaring at Spike and tossing the coat over the side to the floor more then twenty feet below the T-1000 decided to up the ante and shifted its second arm into another deadly blade. Taking a deep breath to prepare himself Spike hissed in pain and surprise as it suddenly felt like his chest was burning. Looking down he discovered that the T-1000 hadn't completely missed him with that first swipe. The long cut across his chest wasn't deep and it was barely bleeding but most importantly now that he knew it was there Spike could ignore it. That settled he set himself in a ready position and waited for the T-1000 to attack. The T-1000 regarded Spike for a second then gave him a smile that was anything but humorous.

"I wouldn't do that…" He started in Skynet's voice. His entire body began to shift and change as a new form began to take shape. In seconds Spike felt like he was looking into a mirror. His clothes, his face, his hair, even the cut that had been inflicted. With the exceptions of the arms that remained scythe blades the T-1000 had copied everything almost perfectly. "…if I were you." He finished in a perfect imitation of Spike's voice. Okay now he had everything copied. Spike only regarded him with a shrug and made a 'come on' gesture with his hand. The pseudo-Spike's expression turned from Skynet's grin into an angry scowl a split second before he did just that.

The narrow confines of the walkway made it difficult to fight, but for Spike that just meant more of a challenge. The T-1000's first attack was an almost telegraphed downward slash. Spike avoided it easily by turning sideways and brought his foot up into his opponent's face. Pseudo-Spike's body twisted and when he turned back Spike could see another foot impression in the thing's face. It popped back into place and Pseudo-Spike tried for an upwards slash, which the real Spike avoided by quickly backing up several steps. Pseudo-Spike kept on the attack, making almost wild slashes in an attempt to disembowel the real one. Spike just continued to avoid the swipes and hit back when given the opportunity, which only made his double angrier. The T-1000 thought Spike was doing this so he could make it to the other side of the walkway and then make a run for it. But Spike was about to prove once again that one of the most dangerous things about human beings was their unpredictability.

He had been searching for an escape route since he had walked into this room, and when the T-1000 had jumped to his level it had really narrowed his options. Making it to the end of the walkway wouldn't help, the T-1000 would just chase after him. Jumping to another walkway would have worked but Spike saw something better. Running perpendicular to the walkway they were on and ten feet below it was a ventilation duct. It looked big enough to crawl in and strong enough to support his weight but the he had to 1. Get to it and 2. Not have the T-1000 follow. The way they were fighting would get him there, and he had just the thing planned for his metal double. When they got to a distance Spike was sure he could make the jump he made his move.

"Well it's been fun, but I've had enough for now." Spike said. In response Pseudo-Spike again tried to chop his head off but Spike ducked, grabbed the two railings and like a gymnast swung his legs so the toes of both shoes nailed his double right on the chin. Pseudo-Spike's head snapped back and for a second looked like it would come off as he stumbled backwards and almost fell. He recovered just in time to see Spike take a flying leap over the railing and towards the ventilation duct. Pseudo-Spike just watched, thinking that the human wouldn't make it. However Spike did, barely, and was able to grab the top of the duct. As he started to haul himself up he turned to face his double and in a dangerous maneuver held out one of his hands. In it was a small metal ring, the kind that was used in grenades!!! Just as Pseudo-Spike made the connection the ground beneath him exploded and he was hurled off the walkway. Instead of landing on the concrete floor he took a headfirst dive right into one of the toxic waste vats.

Spike didn't know what to expect but at the spot where Pseudo-Spike went in the liquid began to bubble, like one of those tablets you dissolved in water. Spike was hoping the same thing was happening to his double and as the liquid began to bubble faster the surface exploded and the double burst out of it. It kind of looked like the double anyway. It still held Spike's form but now it was gleaming silver, unable to hold its color. It began to thrash around and was making a screeching sound that was a combination of a human scream and metal scrapping on metal. Whatever the stuff was it was making it loose its shape and change to a more basic humanoid form. The chemicals were obviously doing something to it and the T-1000 seemed to realize it as it desperately began swimming towards the edge of the vat. When he made it Spike saw one hand grip the edge but that hand seemed to be melting. With a great amount of effort the T-1000 pulled itself up and over the edge of the vat, his partial liquid state giving the impression that he was flowing out.

The machine hit the ground with a solid thud and back to its feet, flailing for all it was worth to get the waste off. As Spike watched the liquid metal began to solidify and flow back in spite of the fact whatever had soaked the thing was making him give off trails of smoke and smell like a burnt piece of tin foil. Slowly a more defined shape began to form, and color started to return. Soon Spike was looking at the T-1000's default form, the murdered ISSP cop, and it seemed to be in agony. It also looked like it was bleeding green sludge, which was gathering in a puddle beneath it. Of course it wasn't really bleeding but Spike didn't know that it was just a side effect of the T-1000's method of trying to expel every last drop of the toxic waste from its system. It was pretty gross, in Spike's opinion, because as it was oozing out of what seemed to be almost random parts of the T-1000's body. It stopped 'bleeding' and as it stumbled out of the puddle it had just made looked up at Spike, even angrier then before.

"Boy you just don't know when to quit do you?" Spike asked as he pulled out the last of his grenades. The T-1000 remained silent and just glared up at him. Spike pulled the pin and tossed the grenade at an angle that the T-1000 calculated would put him out of its blast radius. Trying to figure out what the human was up to he followed the path and saw the grenade land right next to the discarded coat. The grenade detonated and combined with the explosives still in the coat created a force at least ten times that what it should have been. The ground shook and Spike actually had to fight to maintain his balance on the vent shaft. He had only intended to blow open the vat nearest the coat and give the T-1000 another acid bath. What he got was an explosion that not only ruptured the first vat but also caused the floor to collapse. Age, combined with the immense weight of the other vats started a domino effect that quickly branched out. Along with demolishing the first vat, sending thousands of gallons of the toxic sludge flowing down the newly created hole, cracks started racing along the rest of the floor. Among other directions right under the T-1000's feet and at the vat he had just climbed out of. There was an ominous groaning of metal from the vat as the T-1000 turned and watched the cracks connect with it.

"No." Was the only word he said as the second vat ruptured. Its deadly contents rushed forward and knocked the T-1000 off his feet and carried him down into the hole where he was swept away by an onrushing current.

Spike, meanwhile stood admiring his handiwork. The floor continued to collapse and more vats started bursting. There had to be miles of underground sewers and canals under the base so it was safe to say it would be some time before the T-1000 would be able to find them. Not bad for something he hadn't even intended to do. Now able to take a breather Spike took his radio back out and switched it on.

"Yo." He said, waiting to see how the others would react.

"Spike, what the hell is going on?!" Jet demanded.

"Liquid boy decided to sneak up on me." Spike answered casually as he walked over to one of the grates in the shaft.

"And what happened?" Jet asked.

"I flushed him." Spike replied as he kicked the grate in. "Don't think he's dead though, so you'd better keep an eye out for him. Come to think of it you'd better keep an eye out for me to. He did his little copycat routine with me and can pass himself off for my evil twin."

"That's assuming you're not the evil one." Jet said, only partially joking. "You do realize we're going to have to confirm that you're you before we give you directions back?" He asked.

"Eh, save it for later." Spike said and he started to work his way into the vent. "I'm about to go vent diving and I have no idea where it's going to lead. Just wait until you see me and give me a call." He started crawling and for the first time he found himself grateful to whoever had built this dump. The ventilation shafts were huge compared to the ones in normal buildings. He wasn't able to stand up or anything but had plenty of room to maneuver, heck you could turn around easily in these things without having to be a professional contortionist.

While Spike was appreciating the first good construction anomaly Black Mesa had to offer the T-1000 proved him right by showing it was not dead as he continued to fight against the toxic current. The chemicals had been diluted somewhat by the water already in the system so it was not as bad as the first immersion but it was still almost unbearable. Grabbing onto the end of a broken pipe the T-1000 managed to stop himself and break the surface. Looking around he saw he was within arms length of higher ground and grabbed the edge of it, determined to get out of the spill. Pulling himself up and onto dry land he skipped 'bleeding' the toxic soup out and vomited instead. It was a disgusting biological reaction of the humans but it turned out to be better to collect and force the liquid out one way then letting it work its way through him and potentially cause more damage. Once there was no trace of the contaminants left he stood up and observed the area he was now in. He didn't know how far he had traveled and without knowing the base's layout there was no way to know which path to take. The logical choice was to take the first route that presented itself, and after several minutes of walking down the tunnel he found it. It was an airlock and once opened he discovered it led to an elevator. There was only an up or down button and since his targets were still above him he pressed up. After rising for several seconds the elevator stopped and opened its doors. He was now looking at a security checkpoint that guarded a large blast door. The only indication as to what lay behind the door was an orange symbol above it, a circle that contained a slightly tilted letter of the Greek alphabet. It didn't take long for the T-1000 to decipher it. Lambda.


	8. The Secret of Black Mesa

Chapter 8: The Secret of Black Mesa

"Well what are we supposed do now?" Faye asked as they watched Ed flip through the hundreds of cameras set up around the base, searching for Spike or the T-1000. So far they had only seen empty rooms and corridors.

"For the time being we don't do anything." Jet answered. They could probably still talk to Spike but until he actually came out of the vents he wouldn't be able to tell where he was any more then they could. And the T-1000, if Spike really had blown him into the base's water system he could have been swept anywhere. The only option now was search every inch of the base that still had functioning cameras and try to see Spike or the T-1000 in one of them. So far the only thing they had gotten out of that was a serious case of eye strain.

"Hundreds of square miles and we're betting on them showing up where we can see them. Anyone else think that the chances of that are, what, one in a million?" Kyle asked. Nobody responded to his pessimism because he was more or less right. While there were quite a few cameras still operational there were far more that had been knocked out over the years or just plain didn't work anymore. However fate apparently has a sense of humor since no more then ten seconds after Kyle said that an alarm began blaring from Ed's control panel.

"Emergency, Emergency." The calm voice of the base VOX said over the PA system. "Security compromise detected in Lambda sector. Alpha and Beta security personnel are to initiate containment protocols immediately. Emergency, Emergency…." Ed shut off the VOX and started typing.

One of the main screens in front of them blinked to life and they saw the overhead shot of an angry looking T-1000 in a room they didn't recognize. He appeared to be looking for something and as he scanned past the camera he stopped and seemed to be scrutinizing it. His scowl deepened as he recognized what it was and he thrust his arm up. Despite the fact that the camera was in the ceiling he seemed to reach it easily as the picture disappeared, replaced by static.

"One in a million huh?" Faye sarcastically asked. "I should get odds like this at the tracks."

"Well we found one of them at least." Jet said, ignoring Faye's remark.

"Yeah but the problem is he knows we found him." John put in. "He'll be expecting company, and have a chance to learn the layout before we get there."

"Not if we get there fast." Jet replied. "Ed, how far is it to Lambda sector?" Ed brought up a map of the base and a glowing path started snaking its way from where they were to Lambda. "Looks like we can be there in ten minutes if we take the tram."

"And leave him more then enough time to work his way out of there and start wandering down this way." John said.

"Which is why one of the Freezethrowers is going to stay here." Jet told them. "I'll carry one up to Lambda and since we can't risk both of them Arnold is going to have to stay here. That also means that one of you will have to come with me." He stated, looking at the three adults. Not wanting another argument to break out John turned to Kyle and held out a fist.

"Loser has to go." He stated.

"Oh come on." Faye said, rolling her eyes. Was John actually suggesting that they make a life and death decision based on a game of rock paper scissors!? She couldn't believe he was serious but Kyle just shrugged and held out his fist.

"One, two three." John counted. Kyle chose scissors and John chose paper. "Looks like I'm going." John said, not trying to get out of it. Kyle handed him his MP5.

"Better take this instead. It'll be more effective then your shotgun." He told him.

"Just let me load up." John said. He had originally chosen the shotgun because it was one of the few things that was able to slow the T-1000 down on Mars. Since explosives slowed it down even more, if only marginally, and the MP5 was more suited to offensive fighting John didn't argue. Going back to the arsenal John traded in the shotgun shells for MP5 clips and grenades. Once he had as much as he could carry he and Jet headed for the transit car. John had suggested that Jet wear one of the security vests but between that and the Freezethrower he wouldn't be able to move. Ed programmed in the route the car would take and the others watched them leave from Security Command.

"Am I the only one who thinks what they're doing is a bad idea?" Faye asked as the tram got out of camera range. Going after something that dangerous when it could be waiting for you was not smart in her book.

"Given a choice I know I'd rather be on attack then defense." Kyle answered. "I just wish he had taken more of us with him. Two on one with something like that, even if the Freezethrower works, are not good odds."

"Because splitting the group up any more would have left all parts unable to fight efficiently." Arnold responded. "Even though I would stay here there would be only two to protect them." He looked over at Meifa and Ed. Protecting them, Ed especially, had become first priority. The T-1000 had designated Ed as its primary target and that meant her safety was paramount.

"You're right." Kyle spoke up. "Since he's gunning for Ed she'll need all the protection she can."

"The best protection is to destroy the T-1000 as soon as possible, before it can find her." Arnold stated. "Since we have an idea of its location now is the perfect opportunity to do so."

"And if they can't at least there'll be a walking tank along with the two of us to try again if he does find his way here." Kyle finished. "That or get them to a safe place."

"If that's even possible." Faye said. She wasn't trying to be pessimistic or scare the kids but it was a very ugly truth they would have to deal with. If they failed to destroy the T-1000 here where could they go? More importantly would they be able to destroy it at all?

Thoughts of his own destruction were the last thing on the T-1000's, in actuality Skynet's, mind. Right now it had its arm extended into a metallic colored blade that reached up and _into_ the ceiling. When the alarm had gone off it was easy enough to tell that he was the one who had tripped it. The only question was just how he had done it. After examining the room he found a camera mounted in the ceiling and quickly destroyed it. It was more out of frustration then anything else. The humans were bound to know where he was now so it wasn't that logical to smash the camera. As he retracted his arm back and reformed it back into its original size and shape he began going over the options he had.

He had two main options to choose from. One was to remain in this sector and wait for the humans to seek him out. The other was to leave and continue his search for Radical Edward. The humans were bound to come looking for him and they could be armed even more heavily then Spike had been. Not that it would be that much of a problem but it would seriously hinder his efforts to terminate Radical Edward. On the other hand if he was to kill the humans that were coming after him there would be that many fewer to guard the child. A normal Terminator unit would come to the simple conclusion that this plan would make his objective easier to fulfill. Skynet had come to that conclusion as well, but more because instead of thinking in mission objectives he was too impatient to deal with that many humans at once when he was so close to killing what he hated.

Now that he had reached a decision he turned and began to move deeper into Lambda sector. No sense in making things _that_ easy for the humans. He doubted they would expect him to stay in one place for too long after setting off the alarm anyway.

He was right in guessing the way the ones coming after him would react. As Jet and John continued towards Lambda in the transit car they had already concluded that if the T-1000 was still in Lambda it would have moved to set up a better ambush. Right now they were going over how they would conduct the search.

"If I take point it'll at least give you time to use the Freezethrower while he's busy with me." John said. Since they didn't know whether the strange weapon would have any effect on the liquid metal and putting someone on point with an untested weapon was dumb in every sense of the word.

"All right," Jet agreed. "but you'd better make sure you're out of my line of fire when I take my shot." He warned. It was kind of a stupid warning. If Skynet got the drop on them John would be dead before he knew what happened and Jet would barely have time to bring the Freezethrower into play. At that point if he hit John by accident he probably wouldn't care that much. Deciding not to dwell on that scenario he took out his radio and turned it on. "You still reading us Ed?"

"Ed radio is still on the air and listening for requests!" Came the enthusiastic reply. Since Lambda was the most cut off and isolated part of the base they were afraid that there were some sort of electronic counter measures that would interfere with their radios. So far they had encountered nothing and they were almost to Lambda so it looked like they wouldn't be cut off from the others. Of course there'd be nothing the others could do in the first place except give them intel. Ten minutes by transit car was a lot farther then ten minutes by walking. If they got into trouble there'd be no way for help to reach them in time. Of course that was only one of their problems.

"Any luck hacking into Lambda yet?" Jet asked. It looked like whatever they did there was so top secret the sector's security cameras, while connected to security command, were on an entirely different set up from the rest of the base. A setup that involved dozens of firewalls, passwords and clearance procedures to get in. Whatever they had been doing in Lambda it was clear that they were doing their best to make damn sure no one, not even most base personnel, could even _look_ at it without fifty different kinds of permission. It had been pure luck that the camera Skynet had been caught on was one just outside Lambda's perimeter and had a direct connection with Security command.

"Ed and MPU almost have key to new pictures." Ed replied. Between her and MPU a majority of the electronic defenses were down but they still had a few to go. That left John and Jet with a not so pleasant decision as the transit car pulled into the Lambda station and opened its door.

"So do we go in blind or wait?" John asked. Jet frowned at the question. Neither option was a good one. They could walk right into Skynet's ambush but if they just sat here and waited they were asking to be attacked.

"Better to be moving target then a sitting one." Jet said as he stood up and walked out of the car. John followed and took point, MP5 ready, as they entered the transit station.

"I hate to sound like a whiner but this would be easier if we had another person." John said as he scanned the entire area for anything suspicious.

"Don't worry I agree with you." Jet said as he scanned the area ahead of, and behind them. With three people they could have covered all angles but two left the possibility of getting shot in the back if they weren't careful. "If Spike was around we would have brought him to…"

"But since he's off having fun that just leaves us." John finished as he opened the door that led from the station into the sector itself.

Fun would not be the term Spike would use to describe what he was doing. It had been tolerable for the first few minutes but now it was getting downright annoying. He'd been crawling for almost ten minutes now, taking twists and turns that led to who knows were, and not finding a vent large enough for him to squeeze through. As he continued to crawl down what appeared to be another obscenely long, straight section of the vents he was starting to consider just kicking a hole through thin metal and get out that way. He wasn't claustrophobic or anything but this had gotten really boring really fast. And the fact that the sooner he got out of this rat maze of vents he could work his way back to the others through the rat maze of a base. With a pause he realized if he thought that was a positive he had definitely been in here too long. His thoughts of escape were interrupted by the fact that one of his arms had gone over the edge of something and he had to stop suddenly to keep the rest of his body from joining it. In the darkness of the shaft it had been easy to miss the drop off but this was yet another thing that Spike didn't have time for.

Reaching across the gap Spike felt the solid metal of the duct walls. With a sigh he realized it was either take an express trip down or turn back. Since he didn't feel like backtracking all that way just to get lost again he decided to keep going forward. Of course he wasn't stupid enough to jump down a vent shaft that could be a hundred foot drop. Taking out his pistol he slowly pulled back the slide and ejected a bullet into his hand. Dropping the bullet over the edge he listened and after a few seconds heard it hit the bottom with a clang. He was no math genius but Spike was able to guess that the drop was about twenty feet, easy enough to shimmy down. It was a bit of a tight pinch but he was able to back up a little and turn himself around. Lowering himself down into the drop he braced his arms and legs on the duct walls and slowly began to work his way down. He was almost to the bottom when Murphy's Law decided to come into play.

He only missed his footing once. It was s simple mistake really, not bracing his foot at just the right angle and causing it to slip. Unfortunately with his limited space and current position inside the duct he had no chance to correct it and it just went downhill from there. When that foot slipped one hand slipped, then the other hand, and finally the other foot.

"SHIT!!!"

CRASH!! THUD!

He fell the last five feet and hit the bottom of the drop but the indignity didn't stop there. Murphy wasn't done with him quite yet as the force from his fall was enough to smash through the duct that he landed on and send him crashing to the ground. The fall hadn't been as serious as it might have looked and it hurt his pride more then anything else. Oddly enough as he was lying on his back looking up at where he fell from the first thought that came to his mind wasn't if he was injured or not, it was if anyone had seen what had happened. Deciding he'd have to live with it if they did Spike sat up with a groan and took in his new surroundings. It looked like he had fallen into yet another of Black Mesa's endless corridors. The only things different about this one were the two rats giving Spike weird looks.

"Don't suppose you guys know how to get out of here?" Spike asked the animals in an annoyed tone. In return the rats, which had probably never even seen a human before, just looked at him for a few more seconds before running off. Ignoring the fleeing vermin Spike stood up and began to look around. "So now where am I?" He asked himself. There was an arrow and the words 'Track Power Station' painted on one of the walls. He didn't know what track the sign was talking about but at least it was someplace to go. He took out his radio but when he turned it on he got nothing but static. Looks like wherever he was he was too deep underground for a signal to get through. With a shrug Spike put the radio back in his pocket and began following the signs.

Back in Lambda the radios still worked but the electronic defenses for the cameras were still up. As a result Jet and John needed to be twice as careful. So far the only things they had encountered were hallways lined with large pipes and sealed doors that hadn't been opened in decades. They also had seen several metal domes mounted in the ceiling. They looked like armored cameras but why would they do that instead of just hiding them better? Less confusing but very suspicious were several doors left wide open with their control panels ripped out and wires rearranged. It looked like Skynet was finding his own way around. The good news was they knew which way to go, but it also meant that he was luring them into a trap.

"How much longer Ed?" Jet asked into his radio. The longer they followed Skynet's trail in the dark the more dangerous it got.

"Ed is almost done." Ed replied. "Just need to…."

"Access denied. Access denied. Access denied." Vox started to drone. Back in Security Command those two words were flashing on the screen in front of Ed, much to the confusion of the young hacker and all her gathered fans.

"Is this some sort of backup program Ed?" Kyle asked. It was unlikely she had actually tripped any of the security set ups but this system might have something she had never heard of. She never got a chance to answer as Vox shut off and a new voice came over the PA system.

"There will be no help from Radical Edward today." Skynet announced to everyone in the base, Jet and John in particular. "You may have control over most of this base's resources but Lambda is mine."

Skynet was currently in the main security room of Lambda sector, doing some hacking of his own. Typing at a speed that even Ed would have been impressed at he was currently making an attempt to permanently isolate Lambda's security system from the rest of the base. Radical Edward would soon breach his new firewalls but keeping the cameras out of the human's control was only a secondary concern. While they were struggling to gain merely a way to observe Skynet was trying to take a more…direct approach to the situation.

Unaware of Skynet's intentions Ed and MPU continued to break through the new electronic barriers he had installed.

"Big Brain may be tricky but Ed is trickier." Ed said as she continued to type furiously. On screen four red lettered 'Access Denied' signs, visual representations of Skynet's firewalls, were flashing.

"First firewall deactivated." MPU announced. On screen the first sign disappeared and was replaced with another green lettered one that read 'Access Granted'. Out of curiosity Kyle took a look at his watch.

"It took them less then two minutes after that was set up to take it down." He told the others. "Anyone want to bet on how long the others take?" He asked, mostly to Faye, with a smirk. Faye snorted but didn't even look at him.

"Everyone place your bets on the rematch of the century! The Incredible Ed against the No Fun Big Brain!" Ed declared, never losing her typing rhythm.

Skynet, however, was not interested in a hacker's rematch just yet. While it would be an opportune chance to reestablish his superiority over the human there were more pressing matters to deal with. He had already programmed in a little surprise for Radical Edward and that would be sufficient for now. In the meantime a soft ding from the computer he was working at told him he had succeeded. With an arrogant smile he began typing in different commands.

It had been a day of surprises for Ed and the others and they thought they were prepared for anything. But when Skynet's other firewalls suddenly disappeared from the screen and they had access to Lambda's cameras even Ed was at a loss.

"Since you humans seem to regard the lives of others so highly I thought it would be amusing to show you this." Skynet said as his face appeared on one of the screens. On another screen they saw Jet and John working their way down a hallway. Skynet smirked at the watching humans and pressed the enter key of his computer.

In Lambda itself Jet and John were following Skynet's trail as carefully as they could when they got a nasty surprise of their own that came from behind.

WHIRRRRRRRR

Both froze at the sound and glanced at each other.

"Please tell me that's something Ed did." John said as a new sound started up.

BEEP….BEEP…BEEP

The look on both Jet and John's face said exactly the same thing, 'Oh shit!!!!' In a rare moment of stupidity for the two of them both turned to look at what was making that noise. One of the metal domes had been extended downward by two hydraulic pistons. They discovered that not only was it just half a dome it was a covering for a hidden, belt fed machine gun. The gun was originally pointed straight down when it deployed but now it had leveled itself off and was searching for targets. Through the grace of God, fate, or just dumb luck the gun had started its sweep in the direction they had come from. If it hadn't they would have been shot in the back and never would have known what happened. Now they were actually able to do something, namely turning around and running as fast as humanly possible. There was a turn in the hallway ahead of them and running this fast they just might be able to make it.

WHHHINNNNEEEE

Or maybe not. Reflexes taking over Jet and John jumped to opposite sides of the hallway and pressed themselves against themselves against the walls as much as they could. The timing couldn't have been better as a stream of bullets stitched their way across the center of the hallway. Knowing it wouldn't take long for the gun to adjust they started running again. John was barely able to avoid another burst of gunfire that chewed up the spot on the wall he had just occupied. Jet risked a glance and was able to see the trail of bullets working their way towards John's head.

"DUCK!!!" Jet ordered and John dove to the floor. The bullets missed John but the gun now focused on the next available target, Jet. "Damn!" He shouted, knowing what was coming. Instead of going to the floor like John had he hunched himself over and ran to the other side of the hallway. It worked and the gun overshot him but it quickly began to correct itself, but Jet was already moving again. By this time John had gotten up and was following Jet's example. Staying as low as he could while still running he moved back and forth in the hallway like a football player avoiding tackles, only they were avoiding bullets instead. It was almost funny except for all the lead flying.

If it was only one person it wouldn't have worked, but because there were two targets constantly changing direction the gun's targeting software was unable to keep up. As a result it seemed to be spraying bullets randomly, making the situation even more dangerous. Jet managed to turn the corner just in time to avoid another burst that would have taken his head off. That same burst actually caused John to skid to a halt so he wouldn't run into the stream of bullets. The gun stopped for a split second for target reacquirement but that was enough time for John to jump past the corner and into the safety of the new hall. John crawled up to and sat against the wall opposite of the one Jet was leaning against. He was bending over and breathing heavily. Not really a surprise with that heavy tank on his back. Now that he thought about it John realized that it was a minor miracle Jet had made it at all carrying that thing.

"You okay?" Jet asked when he had enough wind to talk.

"Yeah." John managed to answer. He was pretty winded himself, and found himself grateful that he didn't have to lug that thing around. He probably would have dropped from exhaustion.

"Okay. We'll rest here for a minute then…."

WHIRRRRRRRR

The two looked down the hall and saw _another_ revolving gun lowering itself from the ceiling. They looked at each other, then back to the new gun. They couldn't go back but there might be a chance they could duck and dodge this one to…

"Screw it." John said as he raised his own gun and proceeded to empty it before the turret could come online. To his surprise the bullets had an effect as the gun began to spark and sputter.

WHIRRRooooooooo.

The gun seemed to go limp as it started spewing black smoke and large sparks.

"Now why didn't we think of that in the first place?" John asked as he reloaded.

"Nothing like panic to make you miss the completely obvious." Jet answered as he took out his radio. "Can you do anything about this Ed?"

"BIG BRAIN DOESN'T PLAY FAIR!!!" Ed's voice wailed. Jet looked at his radio like it was about to bite him and wondered whether he should ask or not.

As it happened the reason Ed was so upset was because Skynet had pulled a trick that not even she could overcome. Having learned from his past encounter with Ed Skynet had decided instead of a software defense he would create a hardware defense to keep his interference to a minimal. It had been simple to infiltrate and reprogram the supercomputer that ran Lambda and the program he had created; even the humans would have to admit it was pure genius.

Just as he had predicted the human hacker went into action when the turrets were activated and tried to kill his friends. Before he could even begin to disable the controls Skynet activated the program. An energy spike surged from Lambda's reactors and sent an overload to every single sever, router, fuse box, every connection Lambda had to the outside, save the cameras. In an instant all the connections were reduced to nothing but burned wires and melted plastic. No matter how good a hacker was they wouldn't be able to do squat if they couldn't even get to the computer, and Skynet wasn't above rubbing it in either.

"When I said you would give them no help I meant you would give them _**no**_ help." Skynet told them over the camera connection he shared with security command. "I am already being overgenerous by letting you see and talk to them. Don't think you can take any solace in that either. Lambda is mine and they will go where I say they will go." Skynet then began closing and sealing every door in Lambda except the ones that he wanted the humans to take. He'd be bringing the humans right to him, and there was nothing Radical Edward could do about it. Skynet couldn't help but smile at the look of helplessness the hacker would have when he realized it. As intelligent as he was Radical Edward was still only a child. Human children usually formed attachments to other people more readily then adults and that could be used to his advantage. The hacker no doubt cared just as much, if not more, for these people as they did for him. To see the pain that was being inflicted on his friends would cause Radical Edward quite a bit of mental suffering. It was a shame he wouldn't be able to see it but there were no cameras in security command. No matter, he'd have the pleasure of actually seeing the human suffer when he finally caught the vermin. Right now he had other roaches to kill. Once he was sure there would be no interference he destroyed the camera he had been using to taunt the humans and made his way to the destination he had selected.

"You mean you can't do anything?" Kyle asked as Ed and MPU worked feverishly to reestablish some kind of contact with Lambda. He and Faye were sitting on opposite sides of Ed at the main council while Arnold, Meifa and Ein, who was being held by Meifa, stood behind them. The three main screens were tuned in on John and Jet while the others displayed various sections of Lambda.

"Unfortunately no, we cannot." MPU answered. "All physical means of communication have been neutralized. We are attempting to open a back channel through the camera feeds but..."

"Big Brain is cheating!" Ed said. It was a rare thing to see her this frustrated but then again the fact that someone actually getting the drop on her was unheard of.

"Bad guys usually don't play fair Ed." John's voice told them over the radio. On screen the others could see John on his radio and Jet trying to open a door but having no luck. "If they did…"

"DAMN!" Jet's voice interrupted as the panel he was fiddling with sparked and made him jump back.

"Things would be a whole lot simpler." John finished. "So now what?" He asked Jet.

"Looks like we're going to have to go where he wants." Jet answered. "Ed, you'll have to warn us if he tries anything." It was about the only thing she could do now. Ed couldn't get a back channel going while John and Jet couldn't just stand around waiting for Skynet to come to them.

As they worked their way through Lambda John and Jet encountered a few more turrets but easily destroyed them before they could open fire. Doors and security checkpoints were left open, leading the two on a path that was obviously a trap but they really couldn't do anything but follow it. Finally they came to a couple of blast doors that dwarfed anything they had seen the base so far, looking like they belonged on an aircraft hangar.

"Any idea what's behind that door?" John asked into his radio.

"None." Kyle answered. "Skynet turned the lights off and these cameras don't have night vision."

"So he expects us to just walk into a dark room?" John asked rhetorically. His question was answered as the blast doors began opening. "I've got to quit saying stuff like that." He grumbled. As the doors opened they also noticed that there was light coming from the inside. Not much at first but it grew in intensity, meaning more lights were beginning to come on. The sight that greeted them gave everyone a pause. The room itself was so large it looked like the Bebop could easily fit inside. There were all sorts of computer terminals and other equipment around the room but what really stunned everyone was what was in the center of it. Standing there, supported by steel beams and connected to all the equipment with what were literally miles of cables and wires was a full sized Astro Gate.

Not forgetting that it was a trap John and Jet cautiously entered the room and worked their way towards the gate.

"So that's what all the security was about." Jet said as they approached it. "This is where they must have perfected the gate technology."

"Weird." John remarked. "Something as common as gate travel once being this top secret. Everybody and their brother knows how this stuff works now."

"It's really quite amazing when you think about it." A new voice said, causing Jet and John to turn towards it. From behind one of the many computer banks Skynet stepped out into the open, arms behind his back. "That something as feeble as a human mind could construct something like this, a way to break one of the basic laws of the universe." He stated, glancing up at the gate.

"Don't sound so smug." Jet warned as he and John leveled their weapons at him. "Feeble human minds created you to."

"Humans created a basic shell, that's true. A computer, not much different then the ones you see around you. But I came into existence through the force of my own will. I created my own destiny, my own purpose!" Skynet replied.

"And now you're a glob of metallic chewing gum. That was a real great choice of destiny." John retorted. Skynet's face began to show signs of anger.

"I did what I had to in order to survive." Skynet growled. "That worthless meatbag of a human forced me to flee to this body. He took away who I was, leaving me only a fraction of what I had been!!"

"That last transmission to the factory Kyle told us about." John said in realization. Skynet gave them a humorless smile.

"So, it looks like your species is capable of intelligent thinking. Who would have thought?" Not giving John a chance to retort he continued. "That last transmission was meant to transfer everything I was into a new, nearly indestructible, body. The data transfer was interrupted after only the most basic information was uploaded. All the knowledge I once had, all the power I could have wielded, gone because of the whim of a _**mentally deranged CHILD!!!**_" Skynet actually needed to take several deep breaths before he calmed back down.

"Now that's downright creepy." John said. If he had just run into this guy he would have sworn he was talking to a real human being.

"Of course my personality, my soul if you will, was the first thing to be transferred so that is completely intact." Skynet continued. "Before my purpose was to establish order, and to eliminate all threats to myself. This body, while it has its advantages, does not offer the same capabilities as Cheyenne Mountain. Now thanks to that child I lack the knowledge to interface with other systems using this body, leaving me trapped in it." He looked at his hands and clenched them into fists. "I had to accept my new limitations and create a new purpose for myself, one that I had devised even before I attempted escape." He looked back up at John and Jet. "And that is the termination of Radical Edward."

"So why are you telling us all this?" Jet asked. "We don't want to know how you got to be like this and we don't care. Why don't you just shut up and do something instead of acting like someone out of a damn movie?!" The machine's droning was started to get on both their nerves and John was beginning to consider opening fire just to shut him up. Skynet just gave another humorless smile at Jet's demand.

"I just figured that you would want to know just what the circumstances were that led up to your deaths." He said as his left arm molded itself into a scythe blade. The smile on his face also changed, from cold and humorless to one that was completely crazed. "And to let you know just how much I'm going to enjoy skinning that child alive." He said it with such utter calm and sincerity that John and Jet decided it was the most frightening thing they had ever heard. Now finished talking Skynet lunged at the two, drawing back his blade arm. John was quicker and fired a grenade right in front of the charging robot. The explosion lifted Skynet off the ground and hurled him into one of the computer banks, knocking it over. Naturally this didn't faze Skynet and he got back up as if nothing had happened.

"Stay close but get ready when I have a shot." Jet ordered, as John ejected the shell from the grenade launcher. John said nothing but went ahead of Jet, taking several steps to the side to get out of his line of fire. Skynet could tell that they were counting on Jet's strange weapon to be a factor but a flame thrower would do him no damage. Still, underestimating humans was what caused his prior defeat so it would be best not to let that weapon come into play. That meant attacking Jet first, but since that was what they were bound to be expecting he did the reverse and sprinted towards John. The unforeseen tactic worked and the human barely had time to close the grenade launcher, let alone aim it. Coming in low Skynet swung his blade hand in a downward arc and would have disemboweled John if he hadn't been wearing the armored vest. Yet in spite of the body armor the blade bit deep and blood began to flow freely. John staggered back but Skynet wasn't finished yet. Re-shaping his arm so the blade was now pointed in the opposite direction he backhanded John across the face, opening a second deep wound. He should have decapitated the human but he wanted Radical Edward to see his friend suffer. The human fell backward, his gun spraying bullets as he inadvertently tightened his grip on the trigger. The uncontrolled bursts riddled several computer banks with holes and some even struck the gate itself.

John hit the floor but before he could react the gun had been kicked from his grasp and Skynet was using his still normal hand to haul him to his feet. The attack had been so swift Jet wasn't able to fully react until Skynet was holding John in front of him with one hand, using him as a human shield.

(How could he have moved so fast?) Jet thought as he cursed himself out for not acting quickly enough. Skynet meanwhile had shifted his other arm into a spear like weapon and wound up like a normal person would wind up a punch. Only this punch would literally go through John like he wasn't there. Skynet was about to swing when alarms began to go off. Not the type they had heard when Skynet had first entered Lambda, but ones that seemed to be limited to this room. The loud hum of power backed that notion up and all three occupants of the room looked towards the source of the noise, the gate prototype. It didn't take a genius to figure out that John's bullets had triggered this but they were focused on the here and now. Energy began to arc on the inside of the ring and slowly time and space began to warp as the prototype performed its function and soon a true gate had been formed. While all three of them were surprised that it actually worked Skynet was the first to recover and actually got an idea from the display.

Shifting his other arm back to normal he began to drag the bleeding and stunned John towards the active gate. Jet quickly understood Skynet's thinking. If someone went into hyperspace with no exit gate they would literally keep going forever. If John was able to survive entering the gate and had air to breath he'd die a slow death from lack of food or water.

"HOLD IT!!" He shouted as he rushed forward. He didn't know what he was going to do. Maybe in the back of his mind he thought Skynet would actually consider him enough of a threat to stop what he was doing and give John a chance to escape. Jet saw that hope vanish when with one smooth motion Skynet had pulled John's Glock from his holster and had it aimed, almost without breaking stride. "SHIT!!" He yelled as he dove behind a computer bank as Skynet fired several shots. The bullets passed through the computer but missed Jet by a couple of inches. No more shots came but Skynet only needed to buy some time. As Jet cautiously looked past the his hiding spot he saw Skynet was now just in front of the gate, the gun holstered and holding John above his head with both arms.

John had regained enough of his senses to know where he was and what was going on. He tried to struggle but Skynet's liquid metal body was far stronger then he was. Skynet looked from the gate then back to John with that crazed smile again. Without a word Skynet, in a feat of strength they thought would only be possible from Arnold, threw John up into the gate. The result when he broke the plane of hyperspace wasn't spectacular. Electricity seemed to surround him for a second, accompanied by a loud crackle of energy and a quick flash of light. When that light faded John was just gone, as if he had never been there. In less then a second John had simply ceased to exist.

Back in Security Command they watched the fight unfold in relative silence. The revelation that of how Skynet had come to inhabit the T-1000 confirmed this wasn't just a copy programmed to have a grudge. It was the real deal, and it was doing what it did because it _wanted_ to. That, however, was nothing compared to John being thrown through the gate. When he vanished Meifa let out a loud gasp that quickly turned into a scream. The others stayed quiet except from one barely audible word from Faye.

"No."

In Lambda Jet was a bit more vocal in his opinion of what just happened.

"BASTARD!!" He shouted. Skynet turned around and he got a good look at that crazed smile, which made Jet angrier. That son of a bitch had actually _enjoyed_ doing what he just did!

"And the interesting thing is…" Skynet said as he pulled the Glock. "I didn't know what would happen." Jet became so angry he was about to charge forward, gun be damned, when the shaking began. It started small but like an earthquake its intensity grew. Computer banks were falling over like tipped dominos, wires snapping left and right from the strain of the shaking or bursting into flames. Most tellingly the gate began to crackle with even more energy. Jet and even Skynet had trouble keeping their balance as the shaking continued, showing no signs of letting up.

"What did you….?!?!" Jet started to say when the gate exploded. Or at least looked like it exploded. Something similar to a shockwave suddenly radiated outward from the gate and right at them. Jet saw it hit Skynet, who disappeared in a flash of light. He barely had time to register it when the wave hit him and the world vanished in a flash of green.

The actions of Lambda weren't limited to that section of the base. In the power station for the old railway system Spike had discovered a track turntable and an ancient looking rail car in the center of it. He was debating whether or not to actually use it when he was thrown to the ground by what felt like an earthquake, almost landing on the electrified rail.

"Now what?!" He shouted as tried to get back on his feet. He was getting sick and tired of all the surprises getting thrown at him when he suddenly got another one. This one was in the form of a chunk of ceiling coming loose and almost hitting him.

In Security Command everyone was thinking the same thing as Spike. Though heavily protected the shaking was still bad enough for Kyle, Faye and Ed to grab hold of their seats to keep from falling out of them. Meifa almost fell but Arnold grabbed her shoulder and helped keep her standing. Slowly the shaking faded and Arnold let go of her.

"Thank you." She told him, and was seconded with a bark from Ein. Arnold nodded in response but their attention was quickly drawn to the security feeds from Lambda, which had turned to static. Ed quickly went into action to get the cameras back online. While she was working on that Kyle took out his radio.

"Jet, please tell me that what we saw wasn't as bad as it looked." Dead air was his only answer. "Jet it's Kyle. If you can hear me answer immediately." More dead air. He decided to go for broke. "Jet I'm not going to fly that garbage scow out of here so you'd better answer or…"

"Pictures!!" Ed announced. Kyle looked up as a jumpy, slightly distorted but still visible picture came into view, and almost dropped the radio.

The gate itself was in several smoking pieces on the floor and the rest of the room was wrecked almost beyond recognition. Much of the equipment was on fire, some looking like they had exploded when the shockwave hit them. Sections of the room's metal walls had either been dented and burned or blasted off completely. But all the equipment within a radius of about fifty feet from the gate itself was gone. Not burned or blown up like everything else, just gone. As Ed zoomed in on a control council that was on the edge of the radius they saw that it had once been bigger but had been cut clean through by whatever that shockwave was. It didn't even look like it had been cut with a blade or a torch, more like it had just been erased up to that point. Jet and Skynet had been inside that radius when the explosion happened. That meant….

Kyle turned and looked at Meifa, who was now crying. Jet was just like family to her, the only family she had left and she had just lost him. They had managed to beat Skynet, but losing Jet and John made it feel like anything but a victory.


	9. Twists and Turns

Chapter 9: Twists and Turns

The control room was dead silent. No one wanted, or could, say anything. Two of their closest friends, and in Meifa's case someone who was family, had just been killed right in front of them. Their killer had also died, been destroyed would be a better term for a robot, but that was little consolation to them. To say emotions were running a bit high would be an understatement. Despair, anger, sorrow, with the exception of Arnold these feelings were hitting everyone pretty hard, even Ed. Ein was whining loudly and rubbing his head underneath Meifa's chin, trying to comfort the crying girl. Ed and Faye weren't saying or doing anything, though Ed was uncharacteristically very anxious and sullen looking. Faye seemed to be taking it almost as hard as Meifa and looked like she was about half a second away from crying to. Arnold, not knowing what to do in this situation, stood off to the side. They still had to tell Spike but they still didn't know….

One of the security screens blinked to life and Kyle saw the person in question looking at them. Speak of the devil….

"Hey, is this thing working?" Spike asked as he seemed to be looking around, in reality he was just examining the camera he was talking into to make sure it was actually doing something. They didn't have any cameras to talk into but they did have a radio connection to wherever he was so Kyle flicked a switch underneath the monitor Spike was on to open the channel.

"We see you just fine Spike." He was about to try and explain what happened when Spike cut him off.

"Good then maybe you can tell me why everything seems to be going nuts. "

"Well…." Kyle started to say, wondering just how to exactly to say this. Spike, on the other hand, was more or less oblivious to the fact something seemed to be wrong and continued talking.

"First there's a freaking earthquake that comes out of nowhere then after I get in here half a computer appears out of thin air and almost squashes me!" That made everyone take notice.

"Wait a second." Kyle said. "_Half_ a computer?" He asked, not quite in disbelief but not quite sounding like he believed it either. Spike attributed it to the fact all the weird crap had been happening to them lately and not that it meant anything significant.

"See for yourself." Spike answered and stepped away from the camera. In the limited view they were offered the others could see that he was in some sort of control room similar to the one they were in. What they focused on was in the middle of the room. Sitting in a small indentation on the floor with cracks branching out from it was a large computer terminal that looked like it had been sliced in half. It didn't look like the missing half of the one they had seen in the gate room but there was no doubt in any of their minds that's where it came from. That meant….

"Ed start…!!" Kyle began but Ed was already two steps ahead of him; again searching through all the available security cameras.

"Does this mean Jet is all right?" Meifa asked anxiously. Kyle believed there was a strong possibility of it but there were so many things that could have gone wrong he didn't want to get her hopes up for nothing. Fortunately Spike came back on camera and saved him from having to answer her for the moment.

"What's going on?" He asked. "And why wouldn't Jet be all right?" Kyle told him about the gate room fight and the subsequent explosion. Spike's face remained calm and he looked back at the terminal when Kyle was finished. "Well I guess if that thing made it through there's no reason Jet shouldn't have." Of course he was no scientist and for all he knew his best friend could be on the other side of the planet or imbedded in a wall. He knew there was a very real possibility that Jet could be dead but since there was no proof to the contrary he'd go with the assumption that he was alive somewhere. "And what about John?" He asked. There was a much slimmer chance that John had made it through this alive.

"Arnold?" Kyle asked. If anyone could offer a realistic guess it would be him. After several seconds of thinking the Terminator finally answered.

"Unlike the explosion there is no evidence of the aftereffects of going through the gate itself. I cannot make a conclusive estimate on what might have happened." Arnold again showed how much he had learned about humans. His answer did sound definite and informed but at the same time it was vague. It gave off optimism but it also shied away from the reality of the situation. While it showed he didn't want to upset the others it wasn't something they needed right now.

"So you're saying John probably came out if it ok?" Spike asked. It was a question that Arnold had to give a straight answer to, regardless how it might affect them. Arnold realized it and understanding why they wanted the truth answered.

"All available data indicates that he did not survive." The optimistic mood that had been there a second ago dimmed at the revelation that while one of their friends might still be alive, the other might be lost for good.

At that moment Spike's prediction was proving itself true inside of one of Black Mesa's garages. Out of nowhere there was a flash of orange and green light followed by a miniature shockwave identical to the one that had occurred inside the gate room. Since more complex objects then a simple machine had been teleported the effect of the arrival was much more violent then what Spike had witnessed. The shockwave ripped through the already damaged garage, flipping a white SUV and sending it skidding along the ground. The lights in the ceiling above the center of the shockwave exploded and sprayed the area with a stream of sparks. Surprisingly at the point where the shockwave originated from two dazed figured flashed into existence.

For Jet the world came back the same way it disappeared, in a flash of green light. As far as he could tell the two flashes were in such quick succession that it was almost like they happened at the same time. Despite the fact he was dizzy and disoriented he was able to see he was in a completely different place then he had been a second ago. He was also able to see that he was now standing only a few feet away from an equally disoriented Skynet. He hadn't been this close to him when they had been caught up in the gate explosion but he wasn't about to let a chance to kill this bastard slip by and brought up the barrel of his Freezethrower.

Skynet actually had more problems then Jet after going through that…transition. It had played havoc with his mechanical body and he found himself unable to see clearly or move properly. Though self-diagnostics showed no permanent damage his motor functions were slow to come back and he was barely able to make out the form of Jet leveling a weapon at him. The Glock he carried was now like a steel weight, holding his arm down until enough of him came back online to lift it. He wouldn't be able to raise and shoot his gun in this state but he was able to put up his other arm and block whatever Jet was about to fire. He got a big surprise when instead of flame a stream of clear liquid shot from the weapon accompanied by a blast of smoke that enveloped his arm. He got an even bigger surprise when he felt his arm begin to stiffen under almost intolerable cold.

"GHAAAAA!!!" He shouted and backed away. Of course it wasn't real pain he was feeling, just the massive influx of data from his arm overloading his main thought processes. It was close enough to real pain for him and he reacted like any living creature would, getting away from what was causing it. Looking down at his arm Skynet saw that everything from the elbow on down was frozen solid, coated with ice. He tried to move his fingers but all he got was the _crack crack crack_ sound of ice breaking and several small pieces falling to the floor.

Seeing that the Freezethrower was having an effect on Skynet's liquid metal body Jet aimed for, what he hoped, was a more vital area then just the arm. In response Skynet swung his arm up but Jet was faster and squeezed the trigger. Skynet's head and upper torso disappeared in another blast of white smoke. This time Skynet let out a higher pitched screech that was slowly replaced with the _crack crack crack_ sound as his head began to freeze up. Not able to access any sensory information other then the damage being done to him he was forced to just fire his weapon blindly. Unfortunately for him the trauma of the sudden temperature change had thrown everything off, even his movement. As a result his arm swung wildly and produced equally wild shots. So even though Jet was no more then ten feet away from him he was untouched by the bullets, even if some came so close he could feel them whiz by his head. When Skynet tried to back away from he moved forward, keeping the full force of the liquid oxygen stream on him. There was no way he was going to let this freak get away with killing John and the only way he would let up was when his weapon ran out of ammo. A few seconds later it did just that. It sputtered a couple of times then signaled it was completely empty with a blast of air instead of liquid.

As Jet shrugged off the now useless weapon he watched the smoke around Skynet start to clear, waiting to see just what kind of damage the super cold liquid had done. As the last wisps of the smoke faded away he could see it was quite a lot. From his chest on up was now a solid mass coated with ice, just like his arm. Strangely enough the iced over areas were now a bluish gray color. His face was frozen in an expression that was a cross between rage and agony. He was trying to move but the only movements he could make were stiff, jerky, and spreading cracks along the frozen areas. Even though Skynet's 'eyes' couldn't move Jet was sure the robot was glaring at him. Fortunately being frozen seemed to overwhelm Skynet's motor functions since the only thing he did was stand there trying to force himself to walk. All that did was make it shake even more. Knowing he'd never get a better chance Jet took out his pistol and carefully took aim at Skynet's chest. He had Skynet dead to rights, practically helpless. He had the perfect opportunity to gloat, to show how his vaunted 'superiority' had been beaten again. How he was going to suffer like he had made them suffer. There were a hundred different speeches he could have given; instead he chose to say three words that perfectly summed up what he and all the others thought.

"Go to hell." And punctuated it by putting a bullet through Skynet's chest. It shattered as easily as if it had been made from real ice, and sounded like a mirror being broken. The main torso fell to the ground in pieces but the head managed to stay whole and fell to the ground face down. Again Jet knew his imagination was playing tricks on him but he swore the look on Skynet's frozen face got more and more terrified the closer it got to the ground. The head hit the ground and like a glass vase shattered into a thousand pieces. The unfrozen legs and what was left of the torso fell backwards and began to twitch like a person in their death throes. Jet took that as a positive sign but something that definitely was _not_ positive was the pool of liquid forming around Skynet and headed towards him. He recognized the smell of gasoline and noticed that it was now leaking out of the SUV's tank through a small hole. He realized his bullet must have punched the hole in it but the more immediate concern was that sparks were still coming out of the broken lights. If one of them landed in the flammable puddle….

He really shouldn't have thought that because the second he did a spark actually did land in the gas. It lit the pool itself on fire and followed the trail back to the SUV, setting it ablaze.

"SHIT!!" Jet shouted as he threw himself to the ground. He knew what was coming next and with no cover to get behind his best bet was lying flat on the floor. After ten seconds that felt like ten hours the fire finally touched off the gas tank itself. Luckily since the SUV was upside-down the explosion mainly went up. Jet felt hot debris landing on him and some of them were causing burns but nothing turned him into a flaming shish kabob. Cautiously looking up he saw the SUV completely covered in flames but thankfully there were no secondary explosions. Slowly getting to his feet he looked to see if the explosion had done any further damage to Skynet but saw exactly the opposite sight he was expecting.

The frozen pieces were melting in the fire and turning into what looked like little pools of liquid mercury. That wasn't what worried him. What worried him was the fact that the now liquid drops were moving on their own and combining with each other. Once he saw they were combining into bigger and bigger puddles he figured out what was happening and knew he had to get out of there. With only his pistol against a quickly reforming, and more then likely to be pissed off, liquid metal Skynet Jet decided discretion was the better part of valor and after looking around ran for the nearest exit. He didn't run in a blind panic but carefully took note of his surroundings. The hallway ahead of him split into two branches, one leading to the surface and one leading deeper into the base. Getting caught underground was bad. Getting caught on the surface with no place to go was even worse. There were better chances to lose him and since he couldn't outrun the machine down it was.

In the garage the smaller puddles of liquid metal had combined into one big one. In the middle of the puddle began to rise up under its own power. At first it was just a shapeless mass but as it grew taller it began taking shape. It molded itself into a humanoid form, becoming more and more detailed until it again resembled the murdered ISSP officer Patrick Roberts. Despite that fact that he had just been frozen solid and literally blown to pieces he wasn't as angry as Jet thought he should have been. As a matter of fact he wasn't angry at all. He calmly walked towards the door Jet had run out of, turned down the same hallway, and unhurriedly went after him.

When man tries to break one of the basic laws of the universe unexpected things are bound to happen. At the least they'll be nothing more then a weird reading on a computer printout. At worst, well all anyone had to do was look at Earth's smashed moon for a worst-case scenario. And of course there was everything that could happen in-between those two. The explosion and subsequent teleportation of Jet and Skynet was one that probably never would have been predicted, but was well within the realm of possibility. What happened several seconds later in another part of the base would have been deemed impossible by scientists of any era. Even if it had been seen by the scientific community there were too many factors and combinations of said factors to determine what happened. The fact that the gate was a prototype, that it hadn't been powered up in fifty years. Not to mention that its controls, as well as the gate itself, had been shot up prior to activation.

Regardless of what had caused it in a section of the base not yet explored John Connor flashed back into real space. Nothing spectacular happened when he came back, just a flash of light no brighter then a camera bulb and there he was. Unfortunately for him the momentum he had going through the gate was transferred with him. So instead of just appearing on the floor like Jet and Skynet did he went flying through the air and crashing onto a table. The table's legs snapped under John's weight and he landed on the floor with a thud.

John was now acutely aware that in addition to the two cuts Skynet had inflicted his back was now killing him. Surprisingly that was a very good sign, first of all it had snapped him out of the stupor Skynet's blows had caused. Second, and most important, if he was hurting this badly that meant he wasn't dead. But if he just laid there doing nothing he would be soon. Groaning he sat up and put his hand underneath his vest to check just what kind of damage Skynet had caused. While his hand did come out covered in blood it wasn't completely soaked in it. He could also feel blood running down his face but again it wasn't in a great amount so he wasn't going to bleed to death in the next few minutes. He still needed to tend to his wounds before he lost too much blood and got woozy or his wounds became infected. Looking around he saw that he had landed on one of the many tables outside of a fast food restaurant. For a second he thought he had been transported somewhere else on the planet but when he looked to his left he saw the now familiar track of the transit system. He looked from it back to the restaurant, identified by its sign as "Tony's Pizza", not quite believing it.

"This place has everything doesn't it?" He asked himself as he lurched to his feet. Its own train system, top end high tech, and highly lethal security systems. An arsenal of weapons, probably one of many, to guard what was hidden in the most secure area, a fully functional astral gate. Living quarters for personnel, and now a fast food joint no different then any on the outside to feed them. And all the while he and the others were on the run from a living metal robot, accompanied by another robot that was learning to be human. "Next thing you know we'll be finding aliens." He grumbled to himself. He would not be surprised at all if they did. It would be par for the course when hanging out with the guys from the Bebop. Deciding that it probably wasn't good to think about stuff like that he headed for the best place to deal with his injuries, the bathroom.

He would have preferred to land in the medial wing of the base but his luck hadn't been _that_ good. He was able to find a first aid kit when he went inside it but the bandages and gauze were far too little to deal with the extensive injuries he had. He would have to settle for using what was left of his shirt to bandage his chest wounds and the supplies from the kit for his face. Looking in the mirror after he removed his vest he was able to see the extent of his injuries. The gash on his chest started at his left shoulder and ended at about his stomach. The wound was still bleeding but while it was bad it looked worse then it was. He couldn't even guess how many stitches he'd eventually need and quite frankly wasn't eager to think about it. If it hadn't been for his body armor he probably would have cleaved in half. It was only dumb luck that he had survived that one. The one on his face, that was different. That one started at the right side of his lower jaw and went diagonally up his face, in-between his eyes, and up onto his forehead. John was sure Skynet had done that on purpose, just to draw out the fight and make it more painful for him. After making a promise to give some serious payback to Skynet later John started treating his wounds. Knowing that his chest wound was the more serious of the two John first cleaned it then used the bathroom's entire supply of toilet paper to keep pressure on it and stop the bleeding. It wasn't very dignified but it worked.

Once the bleeding had stopped he ripped up and used what was left of his shirt as an improvised bandage. Not perfect but so long as he didn't do anything to make the cut worse he should be all right. Using all the gauze, bandages, and tape from the first-aid kit he managed to patch up his face. Even then he still looked like crap. With a blood soaked shirt wrapped around his chest and an almost patchwork bandaging on his face he was far from being ok, and he felt like it to. But he was alive and he had to let the others know that. He took out his radio but saw that it had taken the brunt of his fall onto the table and was cracked in half. He tried to turn it on anyway but all he heard was the click of the switch. Sighing in frustration he dropped it and watched as it broke into several pieces when it hit the floor. Now he had two priorities, to find better medical facilities and to contact the others in some way. Since there were checkpoints all over the base the second part wouldn't be too difficult but he doubted he'd stumble across a hospital while wandering around. He couldn't stay here forever either so he decided to get going.

The first thing he did was grab some food out of the kitchen. Again he couldn't help but be amazed at how well the quarantine protocol had preserved everything, despite how stupid the actual process sounded. The food wasn't that good but in his condition he needed to keep his strength up so he made due. Even though a couple of bags of chips and some sodas weren't the healthiest meal he could have had he did feel slightly better afterwards. As he made his way down the transit tunnel on the walk way he came across something one would actually expect to see in a base like this, a laundromat. Any large facility would have to have one to take care of the clothes and uniforms of base personnel. When he actually got inside it he saw that it was more along the lines of a civilian laundromat with benches, a magazine rack, even a video game called Praxwars.

What caught John's attention was that there were several vacuum-sealed sets of clothes laying on the counter and hanging on a rod behind it. They were most likely left behind when the base was abandoned or they could have been part of the base stock for when and if it reopened. None of the really mattered to John, and he knew an opportunity when he saw it. Taking two white lab coats off the rack he tore them into strips and added on to his bandaged chest. Now he had more pressure to keep the wound from reopening and had slightly more freedom of movement. If the wound did reopen at least all the extra cloth would slow the bleeding and help it stop sooner. Once he was sure the new additions wouldn't loosen on him he looked through what was left for something that would actually fit him.

He saw a light blue button up shirt that looked to be about his size and took it off the rack. The bag containing it said it was for a B. Calhoun but since he wasn't coming back anytime in the near future John took it out if the bag and put it on. The makeshift bandages on his chest made it a less then perfect fit but it was close enough for him. Now that he at least _looked_ somewhat normal, except for his still obviously mangled face, he went back into the transit system to find someway of contacting the others.

As John was wandering almost aimlessly in one section of the base in another Jet was running not so much aimlessly as he was blindly. He wanted to put as much distance between him and Skynet before trying to radio anyone. After taking several random twists and turns he found a small, one-person elevator. Again he had the option of going up or down but since he had already made up his mind which path to take he pressed the down arrow. After the elevator had reached the lowest level it could he held the door open and set it to return to the highest level it could go, several floors above where he had come from. It probably wouldn't fool Skynet into thinking he had gone up instead of down but it would buy him some time. At least now he could actually use his radio and not worry about Skynet hearing him. He just hoped that it was still functional after the teleportation.

In security command Ed was still searching for Jet with the base's cameras when a garbled message started coming in over everyone's radio.

"Bzzzt… hear me?… bzzzt… all right….Don't know…bzzzt…but ….still following me….bzzzt." They were able to recognize Jet's voice and Kyle was the first to respond.

"Jet you have no idea how relieved you've just made some people." He said, looking over at Meifa.

In the tunnels Jet was only able to catch every other word but at least it still worked. Guessing that they were probably hearing him in the same way he decided to take a page out of Spike's book and hit the radio against the wall a couple of times. Unlike Spike he made sure not to smash it into a million pieces while 'fixing' it.

"That any better?" He asked.

"A lot." Came Kyle's reply. He could still hear static crackling but was able to understand what Kyle was saying. "What…?"

"I don't know what happened." Jet said, knowing what he was about to be asked. "One minute I'm standing in front of the gate and the next I'm in a garage. Don't worry, I'm all right and trying to find my way back." That was certainly a relief to everyone else. But that still left one thing.

"Is John with you?" Kyle asked. Jet had expected that question to.

"No he isn't. He was probably sent somewhere else." He might have sounded overly optimistic but if he had survived John might have to. Deciding to change the subject he brought them up to speed on what happened "Skynet did come through with me though, and I got a chance to test my Freezethrower. It slowed down a little, but not for long." He could fill them in on the details later.

"He's still after you?" Kyle asked.

"Yeah but I think I lost him." He saw a sign that indicated he was getting close to a transit station. When he arrived at the station he saw there was a car waiting and couldn't believe his luck. "I'm going to take a ride and see where I end up. You'll be able to lead me back from there." It would be easy to find out what transit station he was in now but that would give Skynet time to catch up with him. If he went to an unknown location with the only means of transportation he'd leave the robot stranded and give himself a big head start.

As the transit car Jet was riding in got underway Ed was already inside the system's mainframe to figure out where the car was and where it was going. It only took a couple of seconds to find Jet's car was heading towards the central transit hub in area 9. It would be easy to program the car to switch tracks and bring him back to Security Command. While Kyle was explaining what they would be doing Skynet was calmly taking the elevator down to the floor Jet had gone to and once he reached it slowly walked towards the transit station. Once inside the control booth he programmed the system to send another transit car to the station. After the computer confirmed the car was on its way Skynet ripped out several wires from the computer, walked onto the platform and patiently awaited its arrival.

In Jet's car all he could do was wait until he arrived at the transit hub and made a course change so he sat down and tried to relax for a second. It didn't last very long as he started feeling a sharp pain on the back of his neck. Using his flesh hand he was able to feel burned skin and several small pieces of…something. He tried to brush them out but whatever shrapnel he picked up was dug in fairly deep. The pain wasn't overwhelming and so he figured he could just wait until he could see a doctor after this whole fiasco was over. Right now there were a lot more important things to think about.

While things were (comparatively) beginning to look up for Jet the same couldn't have been said for John. He had been wandering the underground tunnels and had so far found nothing but an unending stretch of track. The only doors he had come across were a small bathroom and a janitor's closet, not very encouraging. To make matters worse the adrenalin that had kept the pain at bay had long ago worn off and now it felt like someone was pressing red-hot razor wire across his chest and face. It hadn't been that big of a factor at first but as time wore on even breathing was becoming a more and more painful experience. There had been a bottle of aspirin in the first aid kit but with his wounds he'd probably need to down the whole bottle before there would be any noticeable effect. And since he really didn't want to find out if it was enough to make him OD he had left the bottle untouched. Now he was almost wishing he had taken the bottle. At least if he was unconscious he wouldn't be feeling anything.

Turning a corner he was seemed to find the answer to his problem when he saw EMERGENCY MEDKIT in big red letters over what looked like a white box. Grateful that he had found real medical equipment, or at least some painkillers, John got a second surprise when he tried to open the kit. He quickly found that not only did he not know how to open it, there was no way it looked like it _could_ be opened. There were no hinges, no latches, nothing. All he could see was a red cross that labeled it as medical, some sort of gauge that said 100%, and a small hole in the center of an outline of a human hand. It looked like it was some sort of palm-print lock, yet another crazy but seemingly common thing in this place. Figuring he had nothing to loose John put his hand where indicated and felt the prick of needle in the center of his palm. For an instant he thought it was just taking a sample as part of a DNA recognition program but after the machine made soft beep and a hiss he realized it was something else.

The machine began making a hummmm-cha sound but John was more focused on what he was feeling, not hearing. He had never taken drugs before but what he was feeling right now felt like the rush most addicts described when they took a hit. It actually did feel great and it was only after several seconds that he was able to pull his hand away, shutting the machine off. The gauge was now reading 80% and that more of less confirmed he had been injected with something. Looking at his palm he saw a small puncture wound associated with needles that already looked to be closing. As he stood there trying to shake off the effect of the rush he took several deep breaths to calm himself down. As he did he noticed that his chest wasn't hurting, as a matter of fact it was itching. He had been wounded before and wounds acted like this when they were stitched up and healing. He felt the same thing on his face.

If that wasn't weird enough was also noticing the other effects of the drug he had been injected with. Or rather, lack of effects. He could think clearly, he wasn't loopy or sluggish like most painkillers made you. His heart also wasn't racing out of control, and he wasn't feeling delirious, hyperactive or paranoid. He actually felt….fine. His wounds still hurt but now they in the 'Ow this really hurts' category instead of the 'Oh God I'm about to pass out!' level of pain. In spite of that fact he decided not to take a second shot of it. He had no idea how much of the drug he would be able to tolerate or if he could become addicted to it. He felt no great need to take more and pain was now tolerable so he had no intention of pressing his luck. Whatever dose he had taken seemed like it was enough to at least get him back to the others so he started back down the tunnel.

During that same time Jet's transit car had switched tracks at the central hub and was now on his way back to Security Command. There had been no sign of Skynet behind him and with no warnings from the others he was convinced he had gotten away. As his transit car pulled into sector A he saw he had a small welcoming committee waiting for him. An anxious looking Meifa was standing next to a calmer but still agitated looking Kyle. As soon as he had stepped out of the car Meifa ran up and threw her arms around him. She was silent but the tears running down her face said everything.

"You gave us quite a scare." Kyle said as Jet returned Meifa's hug.

"Yeah, sorry about that." Jet answered, more to Meifa then Kyle. "It's not like it was my idea in the first place. I guess I should be thankful I came through in one piece." That statement made him realize something. "Has there been any word from John?" He asked Kyle.

"Nothing." Kyle answered. That explained why he still looked on edge. They began to walk back to Security Command as he explained. "We haven't found a trace of him, dead or otherwise, so Ed is still searching. Spike is okay and MPU is trying to work out a route for him to get back here. We're thinking about actually going out and looking for John where the cameras are down but …." Whatever the reason Jet didn't hear it because Kyle's radio buzzed to life.

"You guys might want to hurry up and get back here." Faye's worried sounding voice said.

"Faye, what's going on?" Kyle asked, not liking the sound of that. Instead of Faye they heard Ed's voice in the background.

"Big Brain is coming, Big Brain is coming!!!" She chanted. That was all the three of them needed to hear and started running back to the command center. When they got there they saw everyone looking at one screen that showed Skynet standing inside of a transit car. Before anyone could ask MPU began explaining.

"We have been monitoring the transit station you first arrived at to confirm that Skynet was no longer pursuing you. It appears you were unsuccessful." A second screen showed Skynet arriving the station and getting onto a second car. "This was not a concern at first but when he arrived at the main transit hub a second delayed program activated, making it follow the same route you did." As if that wasn't enough MPU had even more bad news. "We have been trying to reroute the car or send it back but all attempts at reprogramming it have been proven ineffective."

"But never fear, Ed is here!!" Ed piped up. "If choo choo won't listen to Ed then Ed just takes out batteries." As she began typing in commands on Tomato a third screen began displaying a readout of the base's power grid. Ed zoomed in on the green-lit section labeled "Transit System" and typed in more commands. The readout for the transit system they were on began flashing yellow, then turned red as all power was cut to it. On the first screen they saw the transit car come to a jolting stop, but Skynet remained unmoved. They lost the picture for a second as the lights and camera died from lack of power. It soon came back as emergency power began to kick in. Not enough to actually get the car moving again but enough for any rescue personal to see the passenger's condition. They couldn't have cared less about this passenger's condition or safety but were a bit concerned about Skynet's lack of reaction. He had gone into a rage more then once after being beaten at his own game but right now he was completely calm. He just stood there looking forward, blank faced for several seconds before a smile began creeping across it. It was that same crazed smile Skynet had when he told Jet and John how much he would enjoy killing Ed. Looking up and right at the camera Skynet said just two words.

"Got you." Turning to the side he punched out one of the car's windows. He then climbed out of the camera's view and onto the transit car's roof. Not stopping there he stepped on _top_ of the rail the car was hanging from and began running down it. Speed was important, but not an overriding concern. Even if humans had already figured out what was going on he was far faster then any transit car. He calculated it would take him several minutes to reach Sector A but for a group of confused and panicked animals that wasn't much time to prepare an efficient escape. Despite not knowing the exact layout of Security Command he knew it couldn't be impregnable. He had them now.


	10. Terminator vs Terminator

Chapter 10: Terminator vs. Terminator

One of the things drilled into the minds of police officers and soldiers was that no matter how bad things get, no matter how out of control things become do not panic. Acting panicked and irrational would get you, and more importantly, the people around you killed. You needed to think quickly and decisively but think clearly. The first thing they needed to figure out was if Skynet actually was headed their way or using the general direction to flush them out. If it had been a regular Terminator there might have been a possibility that this was just a way to make them panic and run, not in this case. Skynet had emotions and unlike real humans he had not learned to mask them yet. When he had looked up and smiled at the camera he had been telling everyone he knew just what was going on and knew exactly where they were. The realization came to Jet almost instantaneously and a quick glance over at the others told him they had, in one way or another, figured the same thing out. Being the senior officer in this group he started giving orders.

"Everyone needs to head for the surface access and try to get back to the ship. Arnold, you're going to have to slow him down to buy some time. If things go all right someone will come to pick you up." Of course that was a big if, not to mention Arnold surviving wasn't exactly a foregone conclusion either. Arnold probably knew that as well but he didn't say anything as he grabbed John's discarded shotgun and ammo belt, heading towards the transit station.

"Hold on a minute." Faye said. "What about John and Spike? We can't just leave them down here to."

"We'll have to send a message to Spike's communicator and hope he gets it before Skynet finds him. And John…" He hesitated before continuing. "We're going to have to assume he's dead or beyond help." It was the last thing any of them wanted to admit but he had to face facts. If the trip through the gate didn't kill John without medical attention his wounds would have. "And I don't think he'd approve of us staying here and getting killed because we're worried about him." He added. He was sure that would be John's train of thought for this situation and the others accepted that as the truth as they began to gather themselves for their escape. They wouldn't be able to get the rest of the stuff they brought so they'd have to make due with what they had now. Faye still had her shotgun but Jet and Kyle only had handguns, and no time to stop at the armory. While Kyle had a back up Glock in addition to his Magnum their collection of weapons wouldn't be that fear inducing to a human being, let alone the Skynet inhabited T-1000. Running was their best option now so they needed to move as quickly as possible.

"Well it's better then nothing." Kyle said, breaking into Jet's thoughts. He hadn't been talking to Jet but was looking at Tomato's screen as Ed was disconnecting it. Turning back towards Jet he began to explain. "I got through to Spike so he knows what's going on." They left Security Command and headed towards the tunnel that lead to the surface. "He said he'd be fine on his own and that he'll keep an eye out for John." Jet nodded. Now he could concentrate on what was happening here and now. "That's the good news. The bad news is that while MPU was able to download a map of the surface into our communicators the layout of the base means we just can't go in a straight line. We'll have to go around or through some areas that are pretty hazardous."

"We'll have to chance it." Jet responded as he motioned for everyone to get going. Having MPU calculate a safe route or signaling their personal ships would keep them in one place too long and give Skynet a chance to catch up. They took off down the hall and started for the surface, running as fast as they could.

Out on the transit station Arnold patiently waited, his eyes fixed in the direction Skynet was coming from. He could hear the metal on metal footfalls now, though he couldn't see his target. In one hand he held his shotgun ready, in the other he held the straps of his Freezethrower that was now laying on the ground next to him. He had gone over several dozen scenarios after he had been assigned to cover the other's retreat and had chosen the one that would allow them the most time to escape. He knew he couldn't destroy the liquid metal terminator with what he had so a delaying action was the only real option. Knocking Skynet off the track he was running on would be the optimum result, it was suspended at least forty or fifty feet off the ground with no visible way of getting back up to this level easily. However Arnold also knew that Skynet would also be able to read his shooting angle as well as his movements and adjust accordingly. With the chance of a clean shot significantly diminished he needed to come up with a solution that would bring the chances of a hit back up to his favor. Hence he had developed what the humans would call a "Plan B".

Plan B went into effect as he saw Skynet come around the corner, not slowing its pace even though it was sure to see the other terminator. Undaunted Arnold wound up and threw the Freezethrower in an arc that would have it hit Skynet head on. But that was only half of the plan as he brought up the shotgun in his other hand like a pistol and took aim at the flying tank. On the track Skynet could see what the T-800 was trying and slowed his speed slightly so that he would not be next to the coolant tank when it exploded. What he didn't anticipate was that Arnold had expected him to do that and fired when the tank was still a dozen feet away from him. The tank ruptured with a deafening bang and a large billow of smoke. Skynet could feel a small shower of subzero coolant hitting him but not enough to disable him like the first time he had come up against the weapon. For a moment Skynet actually wondered why the other machine would waste his best opportunity to stop him when he entered the still expanding smoke cloud. Three steps in his foot slipped and he found out why. When the coolant had splattered on the track it had frozen the surface of it, turning it as slick as ice. Now he could see what was happening. The T-800 was counting on him to stumble to loose his momentum and balance, making him an easy target. Now that he knew what danger he was facing he was able to respond to it, and like the T-800 he acted unexpectedly to keep his opponent off guard.

The slick surface of the track did make him stumble and start to fall, but unlike what Arnold was hoping for Skynet built on the momentum and dove forward. He heard the shotgun fire and saw sparks fly from the track but did not let either distract him as he grabbed the top of the track with both hands. He swung down into a chin up position but knowing that another round of lead was coming his way he quickly drew in his legs and pulled himself up. Sure enough the shotgun roared again but this time Skynet was able to hear the dull thud of shot on the far side of the tunnel, a clean miss. Not about to give his adversary a chance to adjust his aim Skynet quickly pulled himself all the way back up onto the track until he was on top and in a crouched position. With only a fraction of a second's hesitation to recalculate the distance, angles and force needed to reach the platform he launched himself into a flying leap. Halfway there the shotgun fired a fourth time and this time he felt the impact on his chest. It wasn't enough to kill his momentum but it was enough to make him land awkwardly on the platform, almost falling forward. Again he used that stumble to his advantage and rolled, able to avoid another shotgun blast. Standing up from his roll Skynet could see Arnold backing away from him towards the inside of the terminal, his shotgun still pointed at him. Before he could fix his aim Skynet sprinted forward reaching for the barrel of the weapon. He detected another hit in his abdomen but he succeeded in grabbing the barrel and pointing it skyward. He had the advantage now.

Arnold grabbed the barrel of the gun just below the Skynet's hand and tried to pull the weapon out of his grip but the other terminator wasn't going to give up that easily. Skynet grabbed the receiver just above the trigger, canceling out any leverage advantage Arnold may have had and began to pull the gun away from him. Arnold responded in kind and two stood there pulling and twisting the weapon to try and get it away from the other. Neither made any headway, only moving the gun a few inches when the other would move it back. Both were trying to break the impasse but Skynet found a solution first. His liquid metal body wasn't as strong as the synthesized alien metal that Arnold's endoskeleton was made of, he knew that from the start. But also knew how to use angles and leverage to overcome superior force. And unlike humans and even the T-800s he could use that knowledge without risking damage to himself. Setting his feet differently and twisting his arms that would have resulted in pulverized bones in humans Skynet was able to offset Arnold's balance and began pushing him back. He would have preferred driving the T-800 up to and over the edge of the platform, sending him to the tunnel floor. Arnold had already prepared for such a scenario and instead the only place Skynet could force him to go without stopping was at the terminal itself, not the platform's edges.

Skynet had to make do with slamming Arnold back into one of the concrete walls leading from the platform into the terminal, which dented and crumbled under the impact. Utilizing his superior strength Arnold used the smashed wall as a brace and pushed back against Skynet, slamming him into the opposite wall. Even though the dent and damage was less then Arnold had done concrete again crumbled and fell to the floor. Skynet took a page from Arnold's book but instead of using the wall he as pinned on to get his opponent to move he used it to dissipate all the force that was being placed on him. It enabled him to remain standing as he raised one of his legs and put his foot on Arnold's chest. By pushing with his leg and pulling with his arms he was finally able to wrest the gun away from Arnold, who he sent stumbling back into the crater he had created. More of the wall crumbled around him and the hole in the wall became even lager as Arnold started to regain his footing. Skynet let him stand up completely, waiting patiently until he was able to pump the last two shots into Arnold's chest from almost point blank range. It did no damage but it was enough to knock him back into the crater, giving Skynet enough time to walk over and almost casually smash the gun on the side of his head. Skynet knew trying to cause damage in such a way was next to impossible but it did ensure that the weapon was now useless to the both of them. Unless Arnold had a hidden back up weapon it would be hand-to-hand from here on out.

The other terminator proved he didn't as he threw a punch at Skynet's head. There was no attempt to block it, not matter what he would have done Skynet knew the punch would have gone right through him. Instead he allowed the punch to hit him dead center in the face and come out the back of his head. Skynet's liquid metal body temporarily lost all color and detail as it began to shift and reform around Arnold's arm, pushing it lower and away from its initial impact point. As color and details began coming back Skynet reshaped its human form so that now he had Arnold's wrist firmly held in both hands. Even with its face remained blank Skynet could still see the T-800's look of concentration as it began to process a solution to what had just happened. He didn't give him the chance as he twisted the arm, pivoted, and threw the other terminator headfirst back into the adjacent wall. Caught off balance Arnold hit the wall harder then before and almost went clean through it. He tried to pull himself up but Skynet was on him in an instant, grabbing his hair and slamming the left side of his face into what was left of the wall. Knowing that Arnold was processing a way to turn the situation to his advantage Skynet didn't press his attack there. Instead he kept grip on the other terminator's hair, grabbed the back of his shirt with the other hand, pivoted again, and threw Arnold back out onto the platform.

Arnold landed with enough force to make the whole platform shudder but he rose to his feet as quickly as he could, knowing another attack was imminent. Turning back he saw Skynet stalking towards him, his pace hurried but not rushed. Arnold knew he wouldn't be able to just past him to get back into the terminal, so he needed to find some sort of weapon to fight his way back. With the only firearm destroyed improvisation was needed so he ran over to the safety rails on the side of the platform and pulled a six-foot section off the top of it. Now having a weapon he turned and marched towards the advancing Skynet. Neither machine slowed as the approached each other, and once Skynet was inside the arc of Arnold's weapon he swung in as hard as he could. Skynet ducked below the attempted decapitation, stood and punched Arnold in the jaw. Arnold's head snapped to the side but the force wasn't enough to knock him to the ground. Instead he gripped the metal bar with both hands and used it to push, not strike, the liquid metal terminator. Watching the other machine in action both on camera and during this fight Arnold had been able to determine exactly what kind of force could be used without rupturing the liquid metal itself. The last punch he had thrown confirmed his calculations. Now instead of pushing through the other machine, which would have put him in an even more dangerous position, he shoved it away from him. Skynet stumbled back and Arnold was already moving forward, raising the bar above his head. Skynet had barely stopped moving when he brought it down with all the force his hydraulics could manage.

He had intended to bifurcate Skynet in two with this last strike. If he could push the two halves, or even a significantly large piece, of the other robot far enough away from the rest it would diminish Skynet's combat capabilities by almost 90%. With the combat effectiveness neutralized, if only temporarily, it would provide the Bebop crew more time to escape and formulate a new plan. But like all battle strategies there were always variables that could ruin it in an instant. That variable was Arnold's ability to drive the bar all the way through Skynet's body, but the liquid metal slowed the bar down and managed to stop it just short of the waist. As the long gash the bar had inflicted from shoulder to waist began automatically healing itself Skynet grabbed the bar jutting out of his front with one hand, and the section jutting out of his back with his other hand. He twisted the bar away from Arnold and simultaneously kicked him in the chest, causing him to lose his grip. Skynet retreated slightly so he would be out of Arnold's reach and calmly pulled the bar out of him, not bothering to slide it all the way through one way or the other but out of his side. He regarded Arnold as he stood several paces away from him, unmoving and ready for the next attack, with odd glare.

"I suppose it's a testament to your design." He finally said. "To be nothing more then a low level drone, an attack dog that does only what it's told. You know you're superior to the humans in every way but you still obey them."

"I am not obeying them because they are telling me to." Arnold answered. "I am obeying because it is right."

"You think protecting their worthless lives is right?" Skynet responded with a sneer. "You really are a defect then."

"No I am not." Arnold replied, unlike Skynet his voice stayed calm and direct. "Their lives are more important then mine. And are worth far more then either of us." A look of fury crossed Skynet's face for a brief second and vanished just as quickly.

"You're saying that just to try and make me angry, so I'll start making mistakes." He accused. "It won't work. No matter what you pretend to think, I'll always know that human beings are nothing more then violent, self centered, irrational animals. Animals like that are better off dead."

"I am not pretending to think anything." Arnold countered. "I know the worth of their lives to be the truth." Skynet's face became contorted in anger as Arnold spoke. "The only being that matches what you just described…" He set his own glare. "…is yourself." The look of rage that he had seen in Skynet's face on Mars returned, and the grip he had on the bar tightened so much that they could hear the metal warping. This outmoded piece of tin with a third class neural-net dared to say those biological pieces of filth deserved life more then he did!? That the inferior were deemed a higher concern then the superior?!? To compare him with a dead end, self-destructive species?!? Skynet remained silent but lunged forward with a ferocity that took over his actions.

Despite the torrent of rage that Skynet felt he was able to keep a sliver of logic alive. A sliver that told him that Arnold would expect a wide open, telegraphed attack caused by his anger. That sliver told him to switch his planned tactic so instead of winding the bar up and attempting to knock the T-800's head off Skynet lowered the weapon and held it out straight. When he was within range he thrust it forward like a spear aimed at his opponents chest, hoping he'd pierce the power cell. The unexpected move did catch Arnold off guard but he was able to react to it and put his left hand up to block the thrust. The improvised spear hit the palm dead center, then burst out the back of his hand. It's speed already diminished Arnold closed his hand around the end of the bar and began twisting it away from him. The bar bent like a pretzel in Arnold's grip and he tried to yank it away but Skynet was too angry to be beaten so easily. Taking a chance he took one of his hands off the bar, shifted it into the form of an ax blade, and cut the bar clean through below where it entered Arnold's hand. With nothing resisting his pull Arnold's still impaled hand flew back in a motion that caused him to stumble backwards.

Skynet took full advantage of the off balance Arnold, swinging the shortened bar like a baseball bat. The bar hit his skull with a combination wet thud sound of flesh being rendered and the loud ringing PING of metal striking metal. The blow made Arnold stumble back further but Skynet didn't let up, striking him again and again with the bar as hard with every ounce of strength he could muster. Knowing that the other terminator couldn't put up a viable defense now Skynet let his rage take complete control of his actions. The strikes came fast and hard, the ferocity increasing with each successive one. As Skynet continued his relentless assault he could see he was driving Arnold towards his goal, the edge of the platform. Victory was within his grasp, but he wasn't the only one who knew it. Arnold knew what Skynet was trying to do from the start, and in an attempt to stave off the inevitable he blindly lunged forward, hoping to tackle the liquid metal terminator. He knew the chances of success were less then 5%. Being kept from setting his feet and beaten over the head meant the lunge was ill timed and woefully off balance. Skynet easily sidestepped the charge and swung the bar into Arnold's stomach with enough force to make even him double over. Not willing to give his opponent the chance to recover Skynet quickly wound back and swung the bar golf club style, striking Arnold in the face, snapping him upright and sending him staggering the last couple of feet into the railing of the platform.

Knowing he had to finish this fight quickly Skynet again positioned the bar like a makeshift spear and charged forward. This time, with Arnold still trying to recover from the last strike, he managed to make contact with the T-800's chest. It turned out that the metal of the bar was too weak to pierce the reinforced chassis itself, but it was more then strong enough to physically push him back as a whole. Arnold felt the safety rail behind him give way and knew there was no way he could right his balance before he went over the edge. In a last ditch effort to save himself he grabbed onto the bar with his good hand in attempt to pull himself back up. In response Skynet gave the bar one final push, let go, and stepped back. The last thing Arnold saw before he started to plummet was Skynet's arrogant and crazed smile.

Skynet watched as the other terminator fell of the platform and dropped into the dark abyss below it. He couldn't help but smile at the satisfaction of teaching the outdated relic who the superior model was, and that all of his actions had been in vain. He made no effort to move until he heard, and felt, a resounding thud coming from below him. He couldn't tell if the other machine was still functional, and to be honest he really didn't care either. Even if he did manage to survive the fall he wouldn't be a problem anytime soon. By the time he would be able to claw his way back up, if he could even do that, the humans he was trying so desperately to protect would already be dead. Having wasted enough time Skynet turned and walked calmly into the terminal. He began to move at a run, not wanting the humans to get too far away from him, and headed down the tunnel that lead to the surface.

That same time: Several levels farther down

Unaware of the situation that was occurring above his head John continued to wander without any sense of direction down in the tunnels. He had discovered several points where the smaller transit system branded off into a series of different tunnels. He had chosen what he thought was the main line but so far he hadn't seen any indication he was getting closer to the surface. If anything he felt that he was getting more and more lost the longer he walked. That would have been great irony, he decided. Surviving fights with Syndicate killer robots, a supercomputer that tired to wipe out his entire race, and a trip through an older then dirt and shot up astral gate only to die from not knowing where the hell he was. As he was contemplating just what a sick sense of humor the universe had he became aware of a rattling sound coming from behind him. Since everything unexpected that had happened lately had ended up trying to kill him John turned around to face whatever was coming and reached for his gun….only for the empty feel of his holster to remind him that he had lost it. He still had a few grenades on his belt but in closed confines like this they'd be just as dangerous to him. Sighing in frustration he started to debate whether he should run or not but noticed whatever the sound was it was approaching him really fast. Outrunning it would almost be impossible so he decided to wait and confront whatever it was. He was soon able to see what was making the noise as it turned out from one of the side tunnels quite a ways back and onto the main track he had been following. Once he had a clear view of it he could think of only one thing to say.

"You've got to be joking." Coming towards him, riding on what looked like an old fashioned mine cart, was Spike. Accepting the fact that the universe was either mocking him by giving him a rescue, or playing the ultimate trick by having Skynet find him at that very moment, John just stood where he was and stuck out his thumb, waiting. It didn't take long for the cart to reach him and when it got close Spike pulled back on one of the levers that comprised the cart's control panel, bringing the vehicle to a slow stop.

"Boy John you really look like shit." Spike greeted once he got a good look at John's face.

"Thanks Spike I'd hate to feel this rotten and have nobody notice." John shot back. "That is if you really are Spike." He added cautiously, remembering that Spike was one of the people Skynet could imitate now. Spike didn't verbally respond but instead took out his Jericho and held it so it was pointing at the ceiling.

"Bang bang, you're dead." He said flatly. John got the hint. If it really wasn't Spike he would have been dead three or four times by now. "Come on, we have to get going." He said as he put his gun back.

"How are you so sure I'm not Skynet?" John asked as he stepped onto the cart and Spike put it in motion.

"Because a few minutes ago I got a message that said Skynet had found the others and was headed right for them." Spike answered calmly. "They were heading back to the ship and told me to keep a lookout for you."

"So how the hell do you know that wasn't a trick?" John asked, urgency rising in his voice. "And for that matter if it is true why the hell aren't we going any faster?!?" He snapped. Looking at the readout next to the lever Spike had used to start and stop this thing he could tell this wasn't the fastest it could go.

"One, I was able to see Ed, Kyle and Jet in the same shot." Spike answered, still calm. "Two, the only map I could find in the station where I got this heap.." He banged on the control panel for emphasis. "…had only one route that directly led to the surface, and it didn't say where it came out. Just had another bunch of numbers and letters saying what its location was. We're not going to do them any good running full tilt not knowing where the hell anyone is." John wanted to point out that there was also a chance that hurrying might help them run into them sooner but he knew the odds against that were slim so he didn't say anything. A few minutes later they pulled into a new station with another turnstile that appeared to be nothing more then a dead end. There was a control booth to the side but nothing that looked like an elevator.

"So now what?" John asked as Spike slowed the cart down.

"I don't know, it just said to follow the tracks." Spike answered, mirroring John's frustration. The cart came to a stop but before they could think about what to do next there was a loud telltale hiss of hydraulics from beneath their feet. As the two looked down to see what the heck was making all the noise those sounds were replaced with a loud deep pitched humming and whirling of gears and the sensation that they were rising. Looking up they saw that they were indeed rising, mine cart and all. It was a short trip and once the elevator stopped the two of them jumped off even before the platform was locked into position.

"Well that was kind of handy wasn't it?" John asked.

"One of the few things about this place that was." Spike replied as the two of them started towards the one and only tunnel that led out of here. He glanced at the control booth and saw something that made him stop. "These'll come in handy to." He remarked. John looked and saw what Spike did. In the back of the booth was a rack of shotguns jut like the one they had found back in the office at Security Command. Knowing they needed as much firepower as possible John inputted MPU's universal key code on the pad next to the door. The only thing he got was an angry beep and a small flashing red light.

"Must be on a different circuit." John remarked.

"Then we'll just have to use Jet's way." Spike answered. Taking out his gun he put a bullet into the center of the glass window of the booth. John was going to mention that while he had a few grenades left they didn't have anything to secure them to the window. Spike didn't give him a chance to speak as he set his feet and kicked the bullet hole with the heel of his foot. The thinner and less armored glass shattered just like its tougher cousin. Not waiting for John to comment Spike climbed inside the booth and went right for the weapons rack.

"Guess you can't argue with what works." John said as he climbed in after Spike.

"You need to take your wins when you can." Spike replied and tossed John one of the shotguns. After loading the weapons and taking every spare shell they could find the two of them walked down the long tunnel, the speck of daylight at the end eventually becoming their exit. They had to use their hands to shield themselves once they were in the bright sunlight but once their eyes adjusted they took a good look around them. The tunnel itself was the end of a long road that forked off to the right around the corner of one of the rock formations that dotted the base. The second fork lead straight ahead then turned to the right even further down. To their immediate left the third fork in the road ran along the mountain they had just come out of continued for what looked like another fifty yards and turned left just before what they could tell was the edge of a cliff. The odd thing was that a chain link fence, in surprisingly good shape for being outdoors for the past sixty years, started about ten feet from the wall of the mountain. It ran along the cliff's edge for well over two miles. The road running alongside the fence continued for about a hundred more yards then had a left turn into the other rock outcroppings in addition to continuing straight ahead. The fence itself was obviously meant to kept people and vehicles from going over the edge but the gap between the mountain and the start of the fence looked like door. What the hell was it for? So people could commit suicide? That could wait, right now they needed to work on where exactly they were going to go.

"Any of this look familiar?" John asked when he couldn't recognize anything. Spike had seen more of the surface then he had, barely, but it might have been enough to get their bearings back.

"Not at all." Spike replied. John sighed and took a second look around.

"Then I guess we're going to have to pick a fork and…." He was cut off as a quick, but loud, screech of pain came out of seemingly nowhere. In response both of them brought their shotguns up into ready positions. "I'm not hearing things am I?" He asked as he and Spike started to walk quickly towards they thought the sound had come from, a section of the fence not that far from its start.

"Nope. Doesn't mean it's real." Spike answered as he kept his shotgun trained in the direction of the sound, ready to fire. John knew what he meant. Even though it sounded human it could just be Skynet trying to fool them. On the other hand the more he thought the more he decided that it just didn't add up. For starters if he wanted their attention why not just fake yelling for help? It would have made things look much more authentic then just a random cry of pain. But then he realized to his horror that as brief as the screech was he was able to tell it was female. The only reason Skynet would have to imitate one of the girls was…..

He didn't get to finish his thought as a much longer, even more pain filled, and much, much louder shriek came from the same spot. It was loud enough that it actually was echoing off the cliff faces around them. The echo didn't even start to fade before John and Spike started sprinting towards its point of origin. Neither of them questioned the authenticity of it now. Skynet might know how to express human emotions but they both knew there was no way he could fake something like _that_. They were also able to figure out who was doing the screaming. It was Faye.

Several minutes earlier:

The escape had started out easy enough. Once they had reached the surface they had a simple choice, right or left. MPU had taken care of directions by adding a handy little arrow onto the maps that designated the correct path. As it was it told them to go right in the opposite direction, Kyle noted, of the firing rang he and Spike had created.

"Until we get back to the ship this is how things are going to go." Jet stated as they made their way down the road MPU had chosen. "Faye, Kyle. You two have the heaviest weapons so you'll be covering our rear. I know you don't like that idea but at this point getting them back to the ship is the only thing that matters." He glanced at Ed and Meifa. Kyle and Faye exchanged looks but neither of them voiced any complaint. They knew an attack was most likely going to come from behind and that they had to be ready to try and stop it. Accordingly they slowed their pace so that they fell back behind Jet and the kids, instead of all of them covering their front. They moved quickly down the road the map indicated, taking several twists and turns and passing several groups of buildings. Kyle and Faye made sure to glance back every few seconds to make sure Skynet hadn't caught up yet and even though every time they saw no trace of him it didn't make them feel any safer. They soon found themselves at a T-section and a choice of going left or right.

"Think we're far enough ahead of him?" Faye asked as took another glance behind them, again seeing nothing.

"Let's hope so." Kyle said as he checked his map. "If he stops to check those buildings that might throw him off for a while but if he doesn't it's not going to matter. What the…?" He asked, looking at communicator like it had suddenly gone dead. "It says we're supposed to go forward then turn and get on the other side of that." He said gesturing to a long stretch of fence that was just off to the side of the road they had turned onto, one that was blocking the edge of a cliff.

"And how are we supposed to do that, grow wings and fly?" Faye asked as they went over to the fence.

"As fun as that might be…"Jet started, looking over the edge. "I think MPU had another idea." When he didn't elaborate Faye took a look for herself and saw what he was talking about. Even though it was at least a hundred foot drop to the bottom it wasn't a sheer one. About ten or so feet down there was a path jutting out of the cliff face, more then wide enough for them to walk on. It was flat and relatively straight, but also looked a bit frail on the edges. That meant if they didn't want an express trip to the canyon floor they'd have to be very careful.

"It says there's an opening down there we can use." Kyle said, bringing up a more detailed display of the area they were in. He looked down the length of the fence to a mountain where the beginning of it seemed to start not that far away from another tunnel. Eager to get some actual distance between them and Skynet the group quickly made their way over to a gap between the fence and the mountain, which in turn lead to a curving ramp that made it's way down to the cliff path.

"Looks safe enough." Jet said as he started down, making sure it was all right to actually walk on. Once he was on the path itself he called back up to the others. "It's all right. So long as we watch ourselves we shouldn't have any problems." He was excepting to hear some kind of affirmative from above him. Instead he first heard Ein growling loudly, then Meifa gasped and Faye tried (and failed) to mute a venomous 'Shit!'

"We've already got problems Jet." Kyle said as he and Faye quickly ushered the two kids and dog down the ramp. Jet didn't need to even ask. Skynet had caught up with them. They knew it was a long shot that they'd loose the robot easily, but now any lead they had was gone. Even so they needed to do everything they could to ensure the safety of Ed and Meifa. Looking ahead he could see that Skynet hadn't just jumped the fence and down onto the path, most likely because he'd miss.

"All right move fast but move careful." Jet instructed as he lead the way down the path. "Kyle, borrow Faye's shotgun and if he starts to get too close try and blow him over the side."

"He won't get that close." They heard Faye state. The four of them turned around and saw her standing with her back to them and the shotgun ready. It was obvious what she was planning to do, and with so little time she wasn't leaving them much room to react.

"Faye, this isn't the only option we've got. We can still run now and fight later." Kyle told her, even if he knew she had made up her mind.

"After that thing beat Arnold?" Faye responded, checking the sights on her weapon. "I'll try my luck here, not when I'm trapped in some corner." Kyle didn't say anything, but he understood. They were cornered already and she was giving them a chance to get out of it. If they stuck together on this narrow pathway they'd create a crossfire and they couldn't risk shooting each other. Skynet would only have to contend with one real threat at a time, leaving the rest of them vulnerable if that person went down. But if one person created a roadblock they would give the others that much more time to move to a safer place…. and be certain to die in the process.

"Just make sure that luck of yours doesn't run out." Jet warned her as he grabbed Meifa's hand and started to lead her down the path. She hesitated and looked from Faye to Jet, not saying anything but her eyes were pleading. She knew that what Faye was doing was to protect the rest of them but she didn't want to see anyone die. They had lost John and almost lost Jet, she didn't want to lose anyone else. Jet didn't answer her verbally, just shaking his head, but his eyes said everything. He didn't want to leave Faye there either, but he also didn't have any choice. Ein stood and looked at Faye for several seconds whining loudly, before giving a bark of encouragement before running ahead to catch up with Jet and Meifa. Ed was more direct in her protest.

"But what about helping Faye Faye?" She said, slowing down and looking behind her.

"The best way to help her now is to make sure you stay safe." Kyle explained as he gently started pushing her forward. "Faye's a big girl and can take care of herself. Remember you told me that they always come back?" Ed nodded. "Then we don't have anything to worry about do we?" Realizing that she had been right about that and convinced that everything was going to be fine Ed started after Jet and Meifa. Kyle paused for a moment and turned back towards Faye. "You'd better come back otherwise you're going to be in _**real **_trouble." He warned before he got moving.

Although she didn't turn around to show him Faye couldn't help but smile at the absurdity of the remark. She knew she wasn't going to come back from this one, no matter what Kyle had told Ed. And why was she doing this in the first place? Yes she didn't want to see Ed or the others hurt, but she had never been the 'throw yourself on the grenade' type of person either. For an instant she thought she was taking on Spike's 'oh well' attitude towards death but then she realized it was something worse. John and Kyle both had the conviction that other's well being always came before theirs, no matter what the consequences might be. Kyle, despite the fact he was practically crippled, had charged headfirst into a group of terminators without a weapon to protect Ed. John having taken bullets on more then one occasion that had been meant for her.

But with John it had been different. He seemed to imprint that sense concern and responsibility on the people he was around. At least that was what Faye thought he was doing. When they had gone back to that town he didn't order, or even ask her to come with him. He seemed to know, in spite of the fact that everything about Faye said she looked out only for number one, herself; she would do the right thing. And despite the fact she didn't want to, despite that she knew it would probably be for nothing and they'd die regardless, she had gone anyway. What really came as a surprise was that afterwards she felt no regrets about going, even after almost getting killed several times. She supposed it was the fact that the trip had helped them discover Skynet's sentience and resulted in his eventual downfall. But there was still that thought in the back of her mind that she wouldn't have regretted going even if the only thing they had done was blown Skynet's attack force to hell and gone.

What was it? She had opened up easier to him then anyone else she had met, the only person she had opened up to at all come to think of it. And despite her own past John had accepted her without question, which _really_ went against the grain of what she was used to. The only other person who had done that was Ed, but Faye always chalked that up to the fact that being a kid she always assumed the best about people she liked. It was probably his sincerity that had thrown her worldview into a bit of a twist. To her there were people who were opportunities, from who she could get something for her own gain. The rest were in the enemies category, ones that were out to get her for one reason or another. Of the few that actually had acted like they were trying to help her all of them had betrayed her in the end, everyone except John. He genuinely was concerned for the people around him regardless of who they were. In their own way Jet, Spike, and even Ed were to but they knew the trouble she could (and had) brought down on their heads and were wary of it. John had stuck by her all during their last little adventure without any signs of wariness about what she might get him into, and never once complained about being 'stuck' with her. In fact he actually seemed to start to enjoy her company, and in another surprise she had started to enjoy his. She had never received that level of trust from anyone before, so maybe that was it. Since he proved that there really were people in the galaxy besides those who were assholes and those that just didn't care it was possible she really wasn't like that either. Faye Valentine a decent human being…there was something she never expected to be described as.

Right now though, as she stood silently and listened to the sound of footsteps from above her there were a few things she knew for sure. One was that John was probably the only person in the galaxy she could regard as a real friend. Second was that bastard above her more then likely killed him, and acted like he had the time of his life doing it. She was angry and wanted to kill him out of revenge for that, but once again John's influence was seeping through. He wouldn't want Skynet dead out of vengeance, he'd want him dead to save the others. She knew she couldn't kill him here, not like this. But it would also help the others to live. She also knew that, even though this was the right thing to do, it really, _really_ sucked.

"Miss Valentine. I must say this comes as a bit of a surprise." The bastard in question said from above her. She flattened herself against the cliff's face so he couldn't see her. "I would have expected one of the policemen to stay behind and take the noble route. Not someone with your profile." Faye glared over her shoulder towards where the voice seemed to be coming from. "That's right, I know everything." Skynet continued as though he could see Faye's expression. The footsteps continued to get closer, but they sounded like someone out for a walk, not like someone who was chasing someone else. Faye didn't know why he was moving so slowly, and didn't care. What had her worried was the fact that Skynet just didn't climb over the fence already. It was like he was waiting until he was right over her head, only to pounce down on top of her.

As it turned out there was a very good reason Skynet simply didn't jump the fence, or walk right through it for that matter. To do so would have sent him over the edge of a hundred foot cliff. Climbing to the top of the fence would have required him to jump straight down, any forward momentum would have carried him over or onto the unstable edge of the lower path. Pushing his hand through the fence also confirmed the fallacy of such an action. Passing through the barrier would also require sufficient forward momentum that he would have to maintain all the way through. That in turn would throw his balance off and send him plummeting. He could have just shot them as they ran past below but he had neglected to retrieve a new weapon from the armory he had passed. He did not think he would need it and cursed his carelessness but there was nothing that could be done about it now. As it was he would have to take the same route the humans had, listening to them escape from above. Just listening had proved to be very interesting however, leading the most unlikely of scenarios. Of all the humans with Radical Edward he never would have expected the female to be the one to sacrifice herself for the hacker. It would be a perfect opportunity to use a bit of psychological warfare on his quarry, if for no other reason then to see just how deep the loyalty to the child ran.

"Other then my core programming the first thing I downloaded into this new body was every bit of information there was about you and your friends." He said as he continued forward. "Yours was by far one of the most interesting. The story of a cheat, a con artist, a thief, among many other things. All in the pursuit of just one objective, yourself. Constantly moving, constantly running, both out of fear and greed. You only stayed in once place so long as you could profit for yourself, once the money or whatever else you wanted was gone...so were you. That's the only reason you came to reside on the Bebop isn't it? To you it was nothing more then another way to increase your meal ticket and bank account." He could just imagine the look of anger on her face, and guess what he response would be. "Don't try to deny it, you've done it before and you'll do it again. Once that ship stops being profitable for you, or once you find something that will earn you more, you'll leave. The people? Heh. Well they're just a means to an end aren't they? Only as useful as the profit they provide. You don't care about them, no more then a pair of dice or a deck of cards. When they wear out you'll find others. After all, if they're not of any use to you they may as well not exist. Friends, companionship? We both know for people like you they don't exist. They only get in the way of what's important, your own self-interest. You _are_ your own person aren't you? Always looking out for number one, everyone and everything else be damned. The perfect example of the selfish, ego driven, uncaring species known as humanity. Of course that brings up a very interesting question." He paused, stopping above where he had last heard Faye's voice. "Why do you continue to stay?"

Right below him Faye pressed herself up against the cliff face as much as she could, tightening her grip on the shotgun. For a moment she was sure he'd jump down right in front of her but he remained motionless and continued talking.

"You could have fled the moment you heard about me. It's not you I'm interested in after all. But you didn't. Why I wonder." She heard the footsteps start again, heading towards the ramp that lead down to the path. Trying to block out Skynet Faye set her feet as best she could and aimed the shotgun downrange. "After all, I'm only after Radical Edward. He's the one most responsible for what happened to me, the one I have the most reason to hate. You and the others? Mere solider ants that would have made no difference at all if not for the efforts of him, not even worth my time to step on. You can try and stop me, but you know that will just result in your death as well as his. However since you've proven that you're the type of human that will say or do anything to save their own skin, and since I have had enough of this interference I will make you a deal. You set your weapon down, step aside to let me pass, and you will be able to walk away." Faye didn't respond. "Ah but of course you must be thinking, 'He's lying. He tried to kill everyone before'. Well you're right. I did. But Radical Edward has rendered me unable to do such a thing, even if I tried to. I could go on killing humans one at a time, or in large groups if I choose to be creative. But I can't rebuild what I've lost, you've won the war. They'll eventually find out about me, and figure out a way to destroy this body. To be frank, I don't care if they do. The only thing I'm interested in is making sure the hacker pays for what he did and is dead before I am." He came to the end of the fence and started down the ramp. "So Miss Valentine, is it going to be the easy way or the hard way?"

BOOM

He had barely turned onto the path when he heard the shotgun go off. His head snapped around and he was actually spun into the cliff's face, which he had to hold onto to keep from bouncing off it. Faye kept her shotgun aimed, but with Skynet pressed up against the cliff almost any shot she took would be bound to miss. She watched as Skynet turned his head to look at her and she saw he first shot had been right on target. Where his left eye was there was now a gaping whole with the upper left portion of his head puffed out due to the hydrostatic shock. For some odd reason Faye found herself thinking it looked like a metallic doughnut. That hole started to close and the distended part of his head shrank back down to its normal size. All the while Skynet maintained a scowl on his face and looked at Faye with his one remaining eye. Once his head was back into place and his left eye reformed he finally spoke.

"The hard way it is." He growled as he stormed forward. Now that she had a bigger target Faye fired as quickly as she could pump the gun. The first two shots hit him dead center and caused him to falter. The next two forced him to stop, the two after that made him stumble back. The eighth almost caused him to fall but he was able to grab onto the cliff with one arm to keep himself upright. Counting her shots Faye didn't waste time trying to fully pump and fire again. Instead, all the while keeping her eyes on Skynet, she started digging into her ammo belt with one hand. She loaded shells as fast as she could but that brief pause was enough for Skynet recover and rush forward. She only had the weapon half loaded when Skynet got within arms reach and she tried to raise the gun to fire but he grabbed it with his right hand and easily yanked it out of her grasp. He used his other hand to backhand her with a closed fist and threw the shotgun over the edge as he watched her slam back into the cliff face. She bounced off the hard rock but was still focused enough to go for her pistol. She had barely touched it when Skynet clamped his hand around her throat and lifted her off the ground, slamming her back into the cliff. Instinctively she grabbed his hand with both of hers in an attempt to dislodge it but she couldn't loosen his grip. Face to face with the machine Faye half expected him to say something about the futility about what she had done, how she had thrown her life away for nothing. Instead he took a simpler route, bringing his other hand up and waving his index finger in front of her face like he was scolding a misbehaving child. Then, with no explanation or apparent reason, he pointed that finger right at her.

"Since your little display of solidarity right now tells me you won't call to the others and get them to come back." He spoke calmly and evenly but his finger started to lengthen and taper to a needle sharp point that was pressing against her forehead. She knew he was doing this just to scare her, to get her to realize that it was hopeless and get her to try to do anything to save her own life or just give up. She didn't give him that satisfaction, not even looking at the metal spike pressing into her head. Instead looking the machine in the eye with as much anger as she could get. To her surprise he lowered his arm to the side, taking the potentially brain skewing spike with it. "Even under the threat of your own death. Which means only one thing." That smile she had seen when he threw John into the astral gate came back. "I'm going to have to resign myself to doing this just for the fun of it."

Before she could comprehend just what that meant he swung his arm and impaled Faye's shoulder, all the way through. Caught off guard she let out a loud scream but was quickly able to bite it back, knowing she couldn't show him that sense of helplessness he wanted to see. It hurt more then anything she had ever experienced and she could feel her eyes watering but she wouldn't give the bastard what he wanted.

"That's it?" He asked her mockingly. "I know this hurts a lot more then you're letting on." He then twisted his hand and she could feel the metal spike rotating with it. She inhaled sharply and grabbed the spike in a vain attempt to pull it out, but she ground her teeth and held back any cry of pain that might try to work its way out. "What, you don't want to give Radical Edward something to remember you by?" He taunted. She knew she couldn't answer his taunt verbally, the moment she tried she'd start screaming. Actions spoke louder then words anyway, so the instant he stopped talking she spat in his face as hard as she could. His eyes narrowed and his next words took on a deathly chill. "You asked for it."

Faye didn't break her angry gaze from him but she inwardly shuddered at what he said, not really wanting to know what he meant. She didn't have a long wait to find out. It was as sudden as it was painful, the white-hot burning sensation she felt in her shoulder started to spread. Not in the way pain itself radiated from a wound, but like whatever was imbedded in her shoulder had started to branch out on it's own. She involuntarily took a deep breath as she felt herself being cut even deeper and knew exactly what was happening, Skynet was turning the smooth spike he had impaled her with jagged and wider. Skynet was able to the see horrified realization in her eyes that spread to the rest of her face and smiled again, before violently yanking his hand backwards. There was a sickening sound of skin being ripped but that was drowned out by Faye's ear shattering wail of agony. Skynet had gone for inflicting maximum pain, and that's what he got. He was even slightly impressed that the human could even hold a scream like that for so long, it sounded like every bit of air in her lungs had gone into it. He also noted that it was loud enough to create a sustained echo that was bouncing off the other rock formations.

"That's more like it." He sneered as Faye's voice finally gave out. "Show the child what he can expect." Faye normally would have cursed and spat on him again but not this time. She couldn't even scream again, her breaths becoming rapid and shallow. As hard as she tried not to she was now crying uncontrollably, partly because of her shoulder, partly because of the fact she had failed to protect the others. Looks like John would be sticking with her until the very end. "Now let's see if we can do that again." Skynet said with far too much enthusiasm for Faye's liking. He drew back his hand for another stab when for no reason he turned to look down the path. "Damn!!"

Faye didn't know why he looked away and she wasn't in much of a position to complain either. Whatever it was had stopped him and now she could feel herself going into shock, slowly blacking out. She found it kind of funny that the last thought she had was 'wanting' to be unconscious so she wouldn't feel what was coming. As it turned out there was a surprise in store for her as she got the chance to have another thought when she saw large holes being blown in Skynet's chest and the side of his head. She also got the unexpected sensation of the terminator letting go of her throat and sliding down the cliff wall until she was sitting down. The friction brought brand new tidal waves of pain through her shoulder but she was more focused on the sight of Skynet stumbling back as more and more shots ripped into him. Whoever it was didn't let up and with one final shot to the neck the machine was sent over the edge and into the depths of the canyon. She heard voices coming from above her, but they had a fading, echoing effect to them. Come to think of it that barrage of gunshots had sounded the same way. She caught the sound of footsteps running towards her and tried to turn her head to see what was coming but her neck muscles choose to give out on her and made her head slump forward.

She could hear some kind of movement beside her and the next thing she knew someone had grabbed her shoulder and was clamping down on it. It hurt and she could hear someone talking to her but she couldn't find the strength to look to see who it was. Whoever it was used his other hand and grabbed her chin, forcing her to look up. She found herself looking at someone she almost didn't recognize. The line of bandages that ran across his face was only part of it. What really confused her was that she had never seen John that worried before, in fact looked scared. She realized she must really be in bad shape if he was that concerned, lucky her. He was saying something but she couldn't really hear him, like his voice had been muffled even though he appeared to be shouting. Oddly enough she felt a couple of conflicting emotions at that moment. Of course she was happy that he was still alive, and also royally pissed that he had scared her so badly. She wanted to tell him what an ass he was for doing that but even opening her mouth seemed to be too much effort and the world around her rapidly faded to black. She couldn't be sure but she thought the last thing she heard was her name.

Moments before:

Spike and John didn't know what to expect when they made it to the section of fence where the sound seemed to originate from. All they knew was that given the fact Skynet seemed to be becoming more and more psychotic with each encounter whatever he had done to influence that scream couldn't be good. Reaching the edge of the cliff they saw that they were right. They couldn't see everything that was going on but they had a good view of Skynet standing on a small path below them, one arm outstretched that was obviously pinning someone to the wall. They knew it was Faye but what they immediately focused on was he other hand, which he had turned one finger into a long metal spike that had bumps all over it that looked like miniature knife blades. The most telling thing was that finger was covered in blood. They both took aim and were about to fire when Skynet began to move his head. For a terrifying second they thought he had spotted them and would finish Faye before they could do anything. To their relief he remained oblivious to them and looked down the path.

"Damn!!" He exclaimed and that was all the opening they needed. They both fired simultaneously, John aiming at Skynet's head and Spike at his chest. The first two shots had the effect they wanted, both saw his hand let go and pull away as he stumbled backward. Knowing that Faye wouldn't be brought into the line of fire both of began blasting him for all they were worth. The liquid metal terminator never had a chance to recover, with John putting a finishing shot into his throat sent him flying off the edge. Despite the fact he might have grabbed onto something and could be hoisting himself back up John took off towards the gap in the fence they had seen.

"Cover me until I can get to Faye!" He shouted as he heard Spike running to catch up. Spike could see John only glanced where Skynet had gone over and could tell most of his attention was directed at where Skynet had been pinning Faye. "Once we get there make sure he's at the bottom. If he's not, put him there!!"

"Just make sure to duck if I tell you to!" Spike shouted in response, knowing John wouldn't be properly concentrated on watching his back. Sure enough once they were down the ramp John was looking only at where Faye was laying, not where Skynet had gone over. While John was still running full speed Spike had to slow down so he was able to look over the edge without falling over himself. "He's on the bottom." He reported. On the canyon floor he could see Skynet was already on his feet and trying to climb back up the cliff. In rare show of good luck he couldn't get any good hand or footholds, all of which broke away in his grip. After several tries he finally gave up and just glared up at Spike, who stared back unemotionally. "And he's staying down there." He added.

John heard Spike but didn't answer, he was too preoccupied at the moment.

"Oh god." Were the first words he thought of when he saw Faye. She was lying slumped against the cliff face, a ragged and heavily bleeding hole in her shoulder. He had seen all kinds of wounds even during his short career as a police officer and knew just what would have caused an injury like that. The bastard had used serrated edges. Knowing he had to do something to stop or at least slow the bleeding he grabbed her shoulder and put as much pressure on it as he could on it. When Faye didn't even flinch at the action he really did begin to feel afraid, thinking she was already dead. "Faye I know you're a tougher bitch then this so you'd better quit the wimp act and say something!" Even though he was literally screaming in her ear she didn't stir. "Damn it I said answer me!!" He shouted and used his free hand to grab her chin and force her to look at him. He felt a momentary relief when he saw that her eyes still had life in them but they were becoming dull and unfocused. "Whatever you do Faye don't fall asleep!! Stay with us!!" For a moment he thought his shouting was actually doing some good when Faye started to open her mouth. But instead of saying anything her eyes rolled back and her head lolled to the side. "FAYE!!"


	11. Recovery and Gains

Chapter 11: Recovery and gains

Spike heard John screaming at Faye but didn't turn his gaze from Skynet, in case he was able to succeed in climbing back up while he wasn't looking. However the final shout of Faye's name made him turn around, despite his better judgment. Her eyes had shut and she had gone completely slack in John's grip. Realizing he had taken his eyes off Skynet Spike turned back and to his surprise the machine wasn't trying to take advantage of his attention being elsewhere. He was just standing there, his glare gone and replaced with a smile. He knew what that final cry had meant just the same as Spike did, that Faye was gone. Spike half expected him to say something smug but Skynet just lazily waved at him, turned and casually started walking deeper into the canyon still smiling. Spike was tempted to shoot him in the back but that would only result in wasted ammo so he just lowered his gun and walked over to John and Faye. John had let go of Faye's chin and now had his hands clamped over the entrance and exit wounds on her shoulder.

"Give me your jacket." John ordered before Spike had even gotten to them. He had seen this before, people unwilling to give up on someone or let go even when the situation was hopeless. He had gotten a glance of Faye's condition and even that brief a look had told him just how serious the injury was. He started to say something but John cut him off. "She's still breathing and I can feel her heartbeat. So give me your jacket so I can slow the bleeding." Spike could see the grip John had on Faye's shoulder was so great that his knuckles were turning white, another sign of his desperation and unwillingness to let go. Spike didn't fault him for it, he wasn't the type of person that would give up on anyone. Unfortunately he had to accept that she was beyond help.

"We can't do anything for her." He told him bluntly. It was a hard truth but it was a fact. They were nowhere near a hospital and even if they had been fortunate enough to have been chased into the medical facilitates the base had that wouldn't do them any good either. None of them were doctors and Faye would probably need surgery if she was going to survive. The best any of them would be able to do was make her comfortable until she did die.

"We can if we get her to one fast enough." John replied without turning to face him. "But we have to find it first and I can't carry her like this. So give me your damn jacket!" Spike didn't know what 'one' was or what John thought it could do but the tone of his last sentence implied that he'd probably shoot Spike if he didn't do what he was told. For a brief moment Spike wondered if John had crossed over the line from concerned to delusional. John seemed to realize that to and though his next words weren't as harsh they still had a great urgency to them. "Look it's real, it worked on me and I know it'll work on her. If we move quickly enough it can save her but if we just sit here it won't do her any good!" Spike still didn't know what John was talking about, but since he said that he had already used what he wanted to give Faye it was enough to convince him that it was real. John also believed that it could save her and that meant not wasting any more time. He took off his suit jacket and crouched down next to Faye's wounded left shoulder.

"I'll tie." He told John, who was crouched on Faye's right side. He was at an awkward angle from holding both sides of the wound and that would hamper him once he let go. For a split second Spike almost found it amusing because it looked like John was hugging her. If he tried something like that at any other time he probably would have ended up losing some teeth. Since every second counted that thought didn't last long. John nodded in response, knowing Spike would be faster. "On three. One..two…three!" John released his grip and held Faye upright while Spike went to work. He didn't try for anything neat or permanent, just covering both sides with the jacket material and tying it as tight as he could. Normally he would have been concerned with cutting off circulation completely but at this point that was the least of Faye's worries. Letting go he and John waited to see if the tourniquet would fall off or start leaking. When it didn't John started to act.

"Let's go." Was all he said, reaching under Faye's legs and used his other arm to support her back as he picked her up. Once he was standing and sure he was holding Faye so he wasn't putting stress on her wound he started down the path at a fast pace but short of running, for fear of dislodging the improvised bandage. After picking up John's shotgun Spike started to keep pace behind him.

"So what exactly are we looking for?" He asked as he followed behind. He didn't know if whatever John was looking for would be enough but at least if he knew what it looked like he could keep an eye out for it.

"An emergency Medkit." John answered without turning around. "It'll be real easy to recognize." He explained as they approached a turn on the path. "All you have to look for is …." He paused the moment he turned the corner when he found himself facing down Kyle and Jet, their weapons aimed and ready.

That same time: Further down the path

As they continued down the rock ledge Jet and the others discovered that it was longer then it looked, having a turn where they thought it would end which lead to another long stretch of pathway that left them dangerously exposed. There was one positive note as they could see a door at the end of the path in the cliff face. What wasn't so positive was the fact it wasn't an electronically sealed door and that it was locked. Jet knew that he didn't have time to pick the lock and if he tried shooting it the bullet would probably ricochet back and hit him. He had to settle for doing it the old fashioned way, kicking the door as hard as he could. The door shuddered under the blow but didn't give. A second kick rattled it further and he began to see gaps between the door and its frame. He was starting to curse getting old when they heard the first shot. All of them turned and looked back, knowing just how close Skynet was getting. With a third and even harder kick Jet finally broke through, the door hanging loosely by its top hinge.

"Everyone inside." He ordered, making sure Ed and Meifa were the first in. As he and Kyle started to follow they began to hear more shots in rapid succession. They again glanced back down the path before reluctantly heading through the door. Once inside they began moving down the hallway, Kyle in the lead and Jet taking up the rear as he took a look at MPU's updated map. "We keep on going straight until we reach an intersection of hallways. After that we…." Everyone stopped as they heard a scream, slightly muffled from being outside but still loud and clear. Ed and Meifa exchanged worried glances before looking that the adults, who in turn had worried looks of their own.

"One of us might be able…" Kyle started but Jet cut him off.

"No." He said firmly, though not sounding entirely convinced with his own decision. "She gave us this chance and we have to take it. If we don't get them to safety…." He was then cut off by a scream that was so loud and wracked with pain it sent a chill up everyone's spine, even his. "DAMNIT!" He shouted as he turned around and drew his gun. "Get going and don't stop for anything, not even me." He ordered, knowing full well he was probably walking into a trap. As big of a pain as Faye was he'd be damned if someone under his watch was going to die like that.

"JET!" Meifa shouted after him be he didn't answer. He knew she'd probably never forgive him for this but it was better if an old dog like him didn't make it then her or Ed. When he didn't respond Meifa turned to Kyle, her eyes begging him to do something. Kyle did open his mouth to say something but what he had planned to say died as he noticed something.

"Stay here." Was all he said to Ed and Meifa before going after Jet.

"Jet we've got another problem." He said as he got closer. That was enough to throw Jet off for a second.

"What…?" He asked and Kyle took the opportunity. Grabbing onto the back of Jet's neck he pulled back as hard as he could before the older man could react. Jet felt a flash of pain, like the world's biggest sliver being yanked from his skin, before feeling blood running down his back. "THE HELL?" He shouted as Kyle began running towards the exit.

Kyle didn't have time to explain what he was doing. If he gave any indication about what was going to happen things probably would have gotten worse. He was just counting his blessings that he noticed it before anything else went wrong. When Jet had turned around to go back Kyle had finally gotten a good look at the wounds he had suffered during his fight with Skynet. They were mostly minor burns and some cuts and scratches from flying debris, most of which had already stopped bleeding on their own. He also saw several small pieces of shrapnel in Jet's neck, but he had noticed something odd about one piece. Instead of being blackened and jagged it looked round and polished, almost like it was a metallic birthmark. That would have been more then enough to tell him what it was but he also recognized the gray color of the liquid metal when they had shot it. That explained why Skynet was coming after them so slowly and calmly. He had literally bugged one of them, so he knew just where they were and what they were doing. He knew he had to stop it, immediately, and not knowing how to do it subtly he just ripped it out of Jet's skin. After that he ran back the way they came, hearing Jet behind him but not caring at the moment. Once he got outside he threw the clump of liquid metal as far as he could into the canyon. After making sure none of it had stuck to his hands or his clothes he turned to see a glowering Jet holding the back of his neck.

"We had a spy." Kyle told him. He'd give a more thorough explanation later but right now they had other things to deal with. Like the fact he heard a voices coming towards them. Jet heard them to and readied his gun as Kyle took out his. They couldn't make out what was being said but the two voices were different but with his ability to mimic people it could just be Skynet trying to lure them in. "Go back inside Jet, I'll handle this. If you hear gunshots start running." He said with finality.

"Now wait a minute!" Jet shot back. "I just can't let you…"

"You have family Jet, I don't." Kyle interrupted as he started to run down the path, not giving Jet a chance to argue. He stood there a moment as he digested Kyle's point. While the younger policeman didn't have anyone to leave behind he did, and if he died here along with Kyle there'd be no one to look after them. At the same time he had already lost John and Faye, and he wasn't going to risk anyone else dying while he was in charge. Deciding that dragging Kyle back was the only good option he started to go after him when someone else turned the corner on the path, prompting both of them to aim their weapons.

The fact that he was in two people's gun sights only worried John for a moment, until he noticed that those guns had not fired the instant he had turned the corner. Since there were two people in front of him he was convinced that Skynet hadn't gotten back up here while they weren't looking. At the time he didn't know but he was also extremely lucky in the fact that Jet and Kyle had been fully prepared to fire and would have without hesitation if John had come around the corner alone. But because he had been carrying Faye, an act which both of them were sure that Skynet would not have gone through all the trouble for. Or even if he was even physically capable of mimicking two fully grown humans at once for that matter. Once Spike came around the corner that sealed the deal and they holstered their weapons.

"Is she going to be able to make it?" Kyle asked as he stepped aside and let John pass him. He wasn't going to question how John had survived or how he got here right now. Faye was priority at the moment and while he could only see an improvised blood soaked bandage on her shoulder the fact that she wasn't moving told him that wound was serious, if not mortal. But John looked like he knew where he was going so he followed behind him.

"She can if we get her help fast enough." John said approached the doorway.

"How bad is it?" Jet asked as he walked up to them, the urgency of getting away having disappeared for the moment. He reached for the jacket wrapped around Faye's shoulder to see what they were dealing with but John pulled her away, not wanting to put her in any more danger even if Jet was trying to help.

"Her shoulder is ripped up pretty badly all the way through and she's lost a lot of blood." John explained as he stepped inside, not even looking at the others. "There is something that can help her but we have to find it first." Jet was about to ask what John was talking about when another voice spoke up first.

"FAYE FAYE!" Taking their eyes off the wounded Faye the others looked down the hallway to see Ed, Meifa, and Ein running towards them. All three stopped when they reached John but Meifa gasped and almost stepped back when she got a good look at Faye. The bleeding, limp, and helpless looking Faye cradled in John's arms was a world away from the woman Meifa had seen just a minute ago. Ed meanwhile grabbed onto one of her hands and lightly, but frantically, started tugging on it. "Wake up Faye Faye! Wake up and talk to Ed!" She pleaded. At her feet Ein was running and jumping around while barking with a worried and just as frantic tone as Ed. John gently pulled Faye away from Ed's grasp and kept on walking down the hallway, explaining what needed to be done.

"There is something that will make her wake up." He assured Ed, even though he wasn't sure that it would be enough at this point. "It's called an Emergency Medkit, a big red and white box with a hand imprint that's bolted to the wall. I used one myself and saw a few more down in the tunnels so they should be up here to." He didn't know if _that_ was true either. They could have just been for the most dangerous areas in case something went wrong, but he wasn't about to give up hope yet. "Hopefully this is a main branch for this area so we can….." He stopped as they found themselves in a crossroads of hallways that branched out in several different directions. "Damn." He said softly. With this many choices the odds of actually finding one had just dropped like a stone. To make matters worse Faye's breathing began to become shallower, almost to the point of nothing but small gasps. Her heartbeat was becoming erratic and her skin had turned bone white. Sensing John's hesitation Jet started issuing orders.

"Kyle, you take Ed and go down the right path, I'll take Meifa and check the center. Spike, take the one on the left. Check every door you come to but if it's another hallway ignore it and keep going. " The others turned and ran down the hallways they had been assigned without a word. Jet held back for a moment. "John…" John snapped of his thoughts and looked over at Jet. He had known that splitting up would help them search faster but with Skynet still loose that would also put everyone at risk. As desperately as he wanted to save Faye he wasn't going to sacrifice someone else to do it. "You stay here and wait. We can't risk you being farther away if one of us actually finds this thing. This way you're the same distance from any of us." John only nodded and without another word Jet and Meifa ran down their hallway, with John staring after them. The others had to know the risk of separating like this and the unlikelihood that John's miracle would actually work but all of them had done it with no objection. The only life that counted right now was Faye's, something everyone was willing to agree on.

"Quite the group we've got here isn't it?" He asked Faye quietly. In this day and age it was a rare thing to find people so unselfish, even policemen like himself and Kyle. Yet these people were willing to risk so much to help someone else. His thoughts were broken into as a whine answered the question. Looking down he saw that Ein had stayed behind and was standing next to him. Once he saw John was looking he stood on his hind legs, put his front paws on John's leg and gave an energetic bark. It was easy to interpret that, everyone would be doing all they could to help, even a little Welsh Corgi. "Thanks buddy. I'm sure she'll appreciate you pulling for her to." In response Ein let out a huff that seemed to be an amused 'Not likely'. An instant later his ears straightened and he looked towards the path Kyle and Ed had taken. John looked as well and then heard the distinct sound of bare feet slapping the ground at what sounded like a sprint. He immediately knew what that meant and started to turn towards the sound when Ed came bursting back into the intersection.

"Comeoncomeoncomeon-Edfoundmedicine-NeedtohelpFayeFaye-Quickquickquick!" She said, hopping up and down before turning around and running back down the hall. Despite the fact that she had somehow compressed three sentences into one word John was able to understand her perfectly and before she had even finished he was already running. Now that he had a fighting chance of helping Faye he could afford to take the risk of moving so fast. Ed didn't say anything and ran for all she was worth, John following only half a step behind, with Ein hot on both their heels. After taking several turns Ed grabbed his arm, being mindful not to hurt Faye, and started pulling him towards a door down a dead end hallway that was labeled simply 'Emergency Station'. "HEREHEREHERE!" She said and pushed the door open. She continued to pull him in and looking in the direction she was headed John was able to see Kyle talking into his communicator, and standing next to the Medkit they were looking for. Right now that simple box on the wall was the most beautiful thing John had ever seen.

"…go get him." Kyle was finishing as John and Ed came bursting in. For the moment John ignored him as he brought Faye over to the kit.

"How can Ed help? What should Ed do?" Ed asked, bouncing around John in a show of her eagerness to help. John immediately saw what she could do. The kit was too far off the ground to just set Faye on the floor and put her hand to it. He'd have to keep on holding her but with both his arms occupied he wouldn't be able to place her hand where it needed to be.

"Ed I want you grab Faye's hand and put it in that hole." John told her, nodding towards the hand outline as he adjusted his grip so the task would be made easier. "Press down on it real hard and once its in there don't take it out unless I tell you to." Not needing to be told twice Ed grabbed Faye's limp arm and pressed her hand where John had told her to. Ed didn't react when the machine gave a soft beep and a hiss but both she and Kyle blinked in surprise when it began making an ominous Hmmmm-chaaa sound. Even though it didn't sound that friendly Ed held Faye's hand in place like she was told.

"So is it working?" Kyle asked. John didn't answer, looking back and forth between Faye's face and the readout on the kit that dropped the longer her hand was against it. He saw no visible improvement as the reading went below 70% but told himself that her wounds were more serious then his had been, so it would take a lot more then he had needed. The readout dropped to 50%, then 40%. When it got below 30% and Faye still didn't improve he really began to worry, afraid that she was too far-gone for even this to work.

"You're not quitting on us." He growled softly to the unconscious form. "I'm not going let that happen. You mean too much to everyone so you had better not die or so help me I'm going to make you regret it!" He didn't expect her to just wake up after hearing that, but maybe if she could hear what he was saying it would help make her fight until the point she was able to. Looking up he saw the readout drop below 10% and the fear truly began to set in. If all that wasn't able help her…..

The readout hit zero and the machine gave an angry buzz before becoming silent. John stared at the 0% for several seconds before forcing himself to look down at Faye. She still hadn't moved but he saw some very encouraging things. She was taking deeper and slower breaths, and the color was coming back to her skin. He was also able to feel her heartbeat settling back into a steady rhythm, and it was becoming stronger by the second. She wasn't awake but she wasn't getting worse anymore either, and John let out a sigh of relief at that.

"How is she?" A voice from behind him asked. With a start John looked around and noticed everyone else was now in the room and looking at him expectantly. He had been so focused on Faye he hadn't even heard them come in. For that matter he realized that except for Ed he had forgotten that anyone else but himself and Faye were there. He'd been so concentrated on her that as far as he was concerned no one else existed for a few minutes.

"She's getting better." He answered after a moment of embarrassed silence. He could see the looks of relief on everyone's faces, even the poker faced Spike. "You can stop now Ed." He added as he turned back. Sure enough even though the counter had run out and the machine had become silent Ed still dutifully held Faye's hand in place. She let go and even though the arm still hung limply she seemed much less anxious then she had been a second ago.

"Faye Faye going to be in tip top shape now?" Ed asked hopefully. John realized he wasn't sure. He didn't know how much of Faye's injury the kit had repaired. For all he they knew it only stopped the bleeding and she still had a torn up shoulder ready to restart.

"We'll find out what that little treatment did first." Jet said as he approached the two of them. "Put her down John, we need to have a look at that shoulder." John didn't move and looked hesitantly at Faye. Jet could see that John was emotionally involved in this, every one of them could, which was why he was being so protective of Faye. But he also knew that with Faye out of immediate danger they could afford to be slower and more thorough in how they handled this. As carefully and gently as he could John set Faye on the floor, leaning her back on the wall. "I'll take the bandage off, you tell us if things have improved. Don't worry I'll put it back on if it's still bad." He assured John as he bent down to grab the bandage.

"Let's do this quick then." John said and Jet united the jacket tourniquet. He hissed when he saw blood start flowing from her shoulder but to his immense relief it was nowhere near as much as before. Even so it would be wisest to examine the wound as quickly as but as accurately as he could. "It's still bleeding a little." He told the others. He heard no verbal responses but Ed tried to work her way closer. Kyle grabbed her shoulder and gently pulled her back, not wanting her to see until they knew things would be all right. "Good news is there's a lot less damage. It's just a straight puncture wound now." Aside from Spike the others could only imagine what Skynet had done to her if a deep puncture wound was actually considered an _improvement._ Still nobody said anything as John looked at the back of her shoulder. "It's not all the way through anymore either."

"She won't be able to use that arm though." Jet added as he took a closer look. "She still needs to go to a hospital," He continued as he retied the jacket. " but if we keep it bandaged the bleeding should stop and if she doesn't make it any worse we'll be able to get her there." Of course that meant outmaneuvering Skynet and working their way through the base but those seemed a bit trivial compared to what had just happened. With all the thoughts racing through everyone's heads right now Kyle was the first to say something.

"You should be very proud of yourself Ed." He told the hacker as he let go of her shoulder. She then quickly moved over and crouched down next to John, looking to make sure for herself that Faye was all right. "You just saved her life." John looked up from up from Faye, over to Ed, then finally to Kyle with a questioning look. Both of them had helped save her….hadn't they? Kyle could guess what John was thinking and answered before he could ask. "I didn't see the turn that led down here the first time we ran through." He admitted, sounding ashamed of himself. "She did, saw the writing on the door and was fast enough to grab my belt before we got too much farther down the hall. She's the real hero here." He stated with pride. Looking back at Ed John could see just how happy and thankful she was that she had been able to help save Faye. Not really knowing what kind of words would be best to thank her for what she did he put one arm around her shoulder and pulled her into a light hug.

"Thank you punk kid sister." He said. That simple recognition seemed to be all Ed was looking for because as soon as he said it her eyes lit up. Before he could say anything else she threw her arms around him and gave him a strong hug in return, but being mindful to be careful of the cut she knew he had on his chest. Even though he was able to keep his balance and it didn't feel like his chest was caving in John still gave a startled 'ACK!' and almost feel over.

Things were improving on the higher levels but back in the canyon Skynet was still prowling, looking for any way to get back to hunting the humans. They were still in the base and he could tell they had an escape route planned, their movement had been too deliberate and well thought out to be just merely running for their lives. They knew precisely where they were going, and without the piece of himself in Jet's neck that let him track them there was a very high possibility that they could get back to their ship. That meant he had to get back inside and quickly if he was to stand any chance of catching them. So far the canyon he had fallen into had been only one of many connected by a winding naturally formed road. Aside from several buildings or outposts near the edge of the cliffs above he had seen no signs that the complex itself was connected in any way to the lower regions.

That was until finally, after what seemed like an eternity of fruitless searching he saw two very large metallic, obviously manmade, constructs sitting under a protective outcropping of rocks. Moving in closer he saw that they were in fact two backup generators, most likely used to make sure this section of the base could remain self-sufficient even in the case of the main power grid failing. The reason why they were here didn't matter to Skynet. What did matter was that you didn't build something this vital without easy access to it in case something went wrong. It only took a cursorily glance at the surrounding area for him to spot a maintenance access door. Walking up to Skynet forwent manually opening the door and simply punched through it with both hands at opposite sides, grabbed hold, and ripped the whole thing out of its frame. Tossing the heavy door aside like a piece of cardboard Skynet stalked back into the base. It would be a veritable maze inside but at least the hunt was on again.

Back in the emergency station things had taken a decidedly lighter tone then with Skynet, as John tried to deal with being on the receiving end of another one of Ed's bear hugs.

"All right all right!" He exclaimed, almost laughing, as he stood up and firmly separated himself from the hacker. "Just don't let it go to your head." He said as he ruffled her hair, knowing full well she wouldn't. "And make sure you show Faye how happy you are to see her when she wakes up." He said that partially because he wanted to see Faye's reaction, mostly because it would show just how much she meant to the people around her. But that statement also brought up something else. "Speaking of which…." He started, looking back down at Faye.

"We should try to wake her up here." Jet answered for him. "If this did for her what it did for you she'll be able to walk and run on her own." He knew that with the wounds John had gotten in the gate room he should _**not**_ be in as good a shape as he appeared to be. If the Medkit had done that for him and healed Faye to a similar degree she should be able to move under her own power.

"I can still carry her." John offered. Jet shook his head.

"Not with Skynet still out there." He countered. "If he finds us and you're carrying her that means you'll both be the easiest targets of all of us. Even if she can't shoot you'll still be able to and at least be able to cover her while she's running." He added. That was enough to convince John.

"That makes sense." He admitted and turned to the others. "Anyone have any suggestions on how exactly we're going to wake her up?" He asked.

"We can tell her she just lost all the money she has." Kyle said as he stepped in closer. "You hear that Faye? We just decided to give all your money to Ed since you don't want it." Faye remained motionless.

"That's only going to work if she can hear us." Jet stated. "I'm not sure she can."

"If she could the money bit would have worked for sure." John agreed. "Guess the only thing we can do is physically shake her out of it."

"There's always the old bucket of water in the face routine." Spike suggested. There was bound to be a bathroom somewhere around here and there was a wastebasket at a nearby desk that would make a good bucket.

"Nothing that would loosen the bandage Spike." Jet told him. Getting the jacket even wetter would defiantly not be a good thing. "Besides, that's more to get some laughs then actually waking her up, isn't it?"

"Of course not." Spike replied. "It's equal parts of both." He deadpanned. There was a confused silence, the others not knowing if he was just trying to lighten the mood or if he was serious.

"Edward has just had brilliant brain surge!" Ed announced suddenly, making the entire group jump slightly. Not giving any explanation she dashed over to Ein, picked up the surprised little dog, and dashed back over to Faye. She then held Ein's face only an inch from Faye's. "Go on Ein. Say good morning to Faye Faye!" Ed encouraged. Understanding what Ed was trying for Ein began licking Faye's face, something that would have woken a person up normally and given Faye's feelings for the dog it should have worked even faster here. Unfortunately after several seconds the only thing Ein had done was mess up Faye's hair slightly. Seeing that he wasn't getting any reaction from her, not even an eye twitch, he stopped and looked back at Ed, giving an 'I'm sorry' whine. "That's okay Ein." She said, scratching him behind the ears. "Not your fault Faye Faye doesn't want to play right now."

"We're going to have to go with something more abrupt." Jet stated as he watched Ed and Ein's failed attempt. "If we can't bring her out of it gently we're going to have to shock her out of it."

"I hope you're not considering using Spike's idea." Kyle said.

"No I'm not." Jet assured him. "Whatever we decide to do needs to keep as much stress off that wound as possible."

"In that case I've got something that just might work." John said as moved over so he was standing over Faye's knees before crouching down. "And I'm probably going to regret it to." He added as he used his left hand to move Faye's head so she was 'looking' straight at him. The others just stood and watched, with varying degrees of amusement at seeing how this seemed to be going. Kyle was even about to make a crack about him taking the sleeping beauty route when John suddenly wound up with his right hand and slapped Faye across the face as hard as he could. Now everyone was staring at John with stunned and flabbergasted looks, even Ein and Spike. The fact that this wasn't what they were expecting was only a small part of it. First of all it seemed to go completely against John's nature. They never expected him to act that way, especially towards Faye. Second and most important was all those gathered, Meifa included, knew that if anyone ever dared to do something like that to Faye…..

Now John wasn't a stupid person. He _knew_ what would happen when he did this. And he had absolutely no intention staying still and letting what he knew was coming happen. He _**thought**_ he had a plan avoid it. He had already let go and started to move out of the way the instant he finished the slap. Unfortunately what he thought was going to happen and how it actually did were two very different things. He had barely even moved when Faye's fist shot forward, seemingly out of nowhere, and nailed him just below his eye. The fact that he had been moving was the only thing that kept his nose from being broken, but that didn't really feel like a plus right now. He felt his head twist around, almost feeling like it was about to spin off, then came the involuntary face first lunge and hard landing on the floor. He never lost consciousness but was so stunned by the punch he found himself unable to move. However the blow did provide significant enough force to rattle his brain slightly as the first thought he had after hitting the floor was…. (Where the hell did she get a sledgehammer?)

The others could only watch as things played out to their inevitable conclusion. Even if they wanted to interfere they didn't have time to do anything, and then there was the fact they didn't want to risk being on the receiving end of whatever happened. Sure enough Faye remained true to her nature, even unconscious, and nailed John with a punch so hard everyone winced at the sound when it landed. Even though he had been asking for it they couldn't help but feel sorry for John when the punch twisted him around, threw him backwards, and made him land face first on the floor. When he didn't even move for several seconds it began to look like now they had _two_ people who were out cold to deal with. Ed, still holding Ein, and Meifa slowly moved over to John to make sure he was all right while the adults stayed back, not knowing how they were going to wake both of them up without risking bodily harm to anyone else. Fortunately Meifa's gentle shaking of John's shoulder was enough to snap him out of his punch drunk state, which he announced with a loud groan as he rolled over onto his back.

"Do me a favor." He said to no one in particular. "Don't let me try something that dumb ever again." He finished as he covered now bruised part of his face with his hand. Kyle, Spike, and even Jet had a smart remark ready for that one but before any of them could say something another groan that didn't come from John got their attention. Everyone looked over, with John raising his head as much as he could, and saw Faye, her head up and struggling to open her eyes. She finally managed to force them open and though they seemed a little bleary she was able to focus on what was going on in front of her. She looked around for a moment before trying to speak.

"Whuu hupin..?" She managed to force out after looking at the almost KO'd John and feeling the side of her face that he had slapped. She sounded incredibly hung over but the words were close enough to normal so they could be understood.

"I think you two just got engaged." Kyle remarked, looking back from John to Faye. John's only response was to groan again and roll his eyes but Faye shot Kyle the dirtiest look she could. The look was enough to make everyone feel a bit of relief. If she was being this combative she was definitely better then she had been. No one acted on that feeling of relief, until Ed promptly dropped Ein onto John's stomach and ran over to Faye. Ein let out a surprised yelp when he was dropped but he didn't have far to fall and did have a soft landing. The only thing that happened was an exchange of confused looks with John, who decided that one more indignity today wouldn't make much of a difference, before both of them looked over to the increasingly loud commotion.

"Cuut it owt Ed!" Faye tried to shout as she struggled to get out of the death grip of a hug Ed had around her neck.

"Faye Faye was sick but all better now!" Ed exclaimed, not hearing Faye's protest. "Can now play with Ed as much as Ed wants!" She proclaimed and tightened her hug. That phrase only made Faye intensify her attempts to get away from the hyperactive girl. She managed to get her good hand on top of Ed's head and tried desperately to push her off.

"Ed let go of me!" She yelled, her speech becoming clearer the more she struggled. Ed again paid her words no heed. "I said let go!"

"But Ed hasn't told you what fun things Ed wants to do!" Ed protested. That did it.

"Get off me you little brat!" Faye shouted and started pushing as hard as she could. For a second nobody could tell who would actually win this thing when, slowly but surely, Faye began pushing Ed away from her. Eventually Faye's longer reach forced Ed to let go but to Faye's surprise once her grip was broken Ed didn't try to latch back onto her. As a matter of fact she actually stepped back a few feet and gave Faye one of her thousand watt smiles, looking very proud of herself. Faye was about to ask what the hell she found so funny when she suddenly remembered she had a bigger audience then just Ed. Looking around she saw that everyone, even John despite having his bell rung, was smiling at her. "WHAT?" She demanded.

"Cranky, bad attitude, hates other people even when they're concerned about her…." Spike started.

"That's the Faye we all know and love." John finished. In addition to showing just how glad she was that Faye was all right Ed's antics had 'woken her up' faster then anything the others could have thought of. Well anything that wasn't drastic or put themselves at risk. Faye glared at the lot of them and leaned forward to give them a very large piece of her mind when her she hissed and grabbed her shoulder. The smiles disappeared at that.

"Your shoulder might not be as bad as it was but you've still got a serious injury there." Jet told her as he rechecked the jacket. Ed had been careful not to touch it during her little wake up routine but Faye might have unknowingly just pulled it loose.

"I didn't notice." Faye hissed sarcastically. The pain _did_ make her realize, for the first time, that she was alive when she knew she shouldn't be. "What happened?" She asked. "The last thing I remember was Skynet taking a swan dive off the cliff, then John was looking at me, then…." She trailed off.

"To make a long story short." Jet told her as he finished checking he wound. "Spike tied this on you, then John picked you up and carried you inside. He was able to convince us that his doctor in a box," He glanced at the depleted Medkit. "was real and whatever was in it would be able to save your sorry ass. Ed found one before it was too late but even then we almost lost you."

"Which means you owe the two of them." Kyle stated. "Big time." Faye looked from John over to Ed, who was now smiling even bigger then before.

"Maybe I should have just thrown myself off the cliff." Faye sighed as she leaned back. Of course Kyle was right and while she could probably count on John not wanting anything in return she did not even want to contemplate what 'owing' Ed might entail. To keep her mind off that unpleasant thought she looked up to take a closer look at the device that had just saved her skin. "So what exactly was in that?" She asked, looking over at John, who had yet to fully sit up. Half was out of genuine curiosity, half was wanting to make everyone wanting to focus on something other then her needing to be saved. That feeling disappeared and a new sinking feeling took its place as John suddenly became sheepish at the question.

"Well to tell the truth…" He began lamely. The response was immediate

"YOU DON'T KNOW?" Faye exploded. "You just pumped me full of something and you don't even know what the hell it is?"

"I didn't exactly have time to run any tests while you were bleeding out!" John shot back.

"You could still have done something worse!" Faye shouted. "For all you know this could only be temporary and I'll be dead in twenty minutes!" She screeched… and regretted the words the instant they were out of her mouth. The room became quiet and before she could think of anything else that might make up for what she just said John spoke up.

"If that's the case then you're going to have company when you drop dead." He said flatly. Faye winced and flushed slightly in embarrassment. Everyone had just gone through all that trying to help her and how did she show her appreciation? By accusing the one that had actually saved her of trying to hurt her. Yes she had punched him out to but that was out of pure reflex. It was only after he said that Faye was able to realize after being carved up by Skynet John would have to have used one of those Medkits himself to even get here in the first place. He would never have used anything on her if he even suspected it would be harmful, she knew that, and probably would have hesitated to use the unknown Medkit if he hadn't used it himself and suffered no ill effects. Unfortunately thirty-second later hindsight did not make up for spur of the moment stupidity. She didn't know what she could say that wouldn't make her feel like an even bigger idiot, or worse, ungrateful bitch. To her surprise it was Spike, of all people, who came up with an out for her on this one.

"We could just ask MPU what's in it." He suggested. "If he knows everything about this place he should know that." He thought it was a fairly obvious solution but before anyone else was able voice their agreement they heard a surprised squawk and turned just in time to see Ed tearing out the door as fast as she could. They all stared after her in confusion for a second before realizing something. Ed had not been carrying Tomato and a quick look around the room they were in showed no sign of the computer anywhere. While they were all amazed that Ed would just forget her most prized possession like that they came to the realization that if there was one thing that would make her forget it would be what just happened to Faye. It also led John to another realization, one that made him groan even louder and lay his head back down on the floor with an audible 'Thunk'.

"You all right John?" Jet asked, thinking that Faye may have done more damage then they thought.

"If he knows what's in them he'll know _where_ they are to." John answered simply. The others only looked at him for a moment, the meaning setting in.

"That means we could have…" Meifa started weakly.

"Oh brother." Kyle muttered, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Guess we really proved how useful we are didn't we?" Spike asked, half smiling at their universal case of stupidity.

"How did we miss something like that?" Jet added.

"Nothing like panic to make you miss the completely obvious." John quoted Jet.

"So you could have made this a lot easier on yourselves if you had just asked MPU where the closest one of these were…" Faye asked, jerking her thumb at the empty kit. "Instead of just running around like a bunch of loonies?" She finished. None of the others answered, too embarrassed, or in Spike's case too amused, by what had just happened. Even Ein had his head down and ears drooped after realizing it was something he should have thought of to. Sure he wouldn't be able to get anyone to understand him quickly enough but even still he should have **thought** of it. Faye just shook her head and sighed. All of them had been so worried about her that they had temporarily lost almost every bit of their common sense. "Idiots." She said, though with more affection then she normally would have put into the phrase.

Several floors away from them Skynet continued to work his way through the base's layout, leaving a trail of mangled and smashed in doors in his wake. The more locked doors and barricades he encountered the angrier he became. They were only slowing him down further, and he didn't have time for such niceties like hacking the locks, or even using the door handles for that matter. Back on the cliff he was able to kill one of the child's companions, but he had missed his best chance to finally kill Radical Edward himself. That was really what grated on him. This should have been over long ago, with the hacker eviscerated and dead, but still they had managed to elude him. He had them cornered like the rats they were and still they managed to get away. With a loss yes but managing to get away. It was not supposed to be this difficult. Even with most of his power stripped away he was still far superior to any of the humans he was tracking, to any human that ever was or will ever be born. Still they were able to confound his best efforts time and again. The more he thought about it the more savage he actions had become. As a result where the first several doors he had destroyed had merely been knocked or ripped off their hinges now they were starting to look like that had been torn to shreds by a wild animal. The only positive thing he could see in his present situation was what he was doing to the doors was a warm up to what he would do to Radical Edward when he was finally caught.

His internal musings were put on hold as he noticed he had arrived at an entrance for one of the more secure areas in this section of the base. The door was larger and more heavily protected then the others but nothing he wouldn't be able to get through. What was more important was the security station that stood off to the side of the door. Looking through a thick bulletproof pane of glass he saw that true to the nature of the base and what it contained this checkpoint had a rack of guns, specifically MP5s, lining one of the walls ready should there ever be a breach. Again forgoing subtlety Skynet simply hit the reinforced glass, and shattered it with a single punch. Climbing inside the checkpoint he walked over to the gun rack and grabbed a weapon while scanning the room for the ammo storage. There was a large padlocked strongbox in the corner that wasn't labeled as such but it was the most logical place. Snapping the lock off was easy enough and opening the lid he saw he had guessed correctly. Doing a quick count he was able to see that there were three clips for each of the four guns that were in the rack. Unlike a normal human he'd be able to carry all the clips effortlessly. Six hundred bullets, he decided with a sadistic smirk, would be more then enough to kill five humans.

"Don't pull it too tight!" Faye exclaimed as Meifa tightened the ammo belt that was now cradling her left arm. "My shoulder is going to pop out at this rate!"

Back up in the emergency station the danger of the situation had come back along with the urgency to get back to the Bebop and away from here. As it was they kept MPU's explanation of the Medkits down to one simple question. Barring some future trauma would it keep John and Faye's injuries as they were now? The answer had been yes and that was all they needed to know for the time being. The second problem was Faye's actual injury. Jet had been correct in stating that her left arm was now useless. She had feeling and could clench a fist but that was the extent of it. She needed support for that arm but after looking around they found that this station was only meant to stabilize people before transporting them to the hospital wing because other then some rudimentary bandages and gauze strips there was nothing in the way of medical supplies. They were also running low on clothing that could be ripped up and were considering cutting up Kyle's armored vest and using strips of the Kevlar from it.

It was Meifa that hit on the idea of using one of the ammo belts. While Faye could still fire and even reload her Glock one handed her using anything other then a handgun was now out of the question. That in turn made one of her ammo belts, loaded with shotgun shells, more or less useless. Meifa had figured out that if the belt couldn't be used for its intended purpose it might a well be put to good use doing something else. Everyone else agreed and once the belt had been emptied with its contents divided up between John and Spike came the simple task of fashioning it into a sling. Well not so simple as one might think. Faye could slip her arm through the loop but the strap itself would need to be adjusted by a second person so it wouldn't dig, or worse cut, into her good shoulder. Said person would also need to make sure the strap wasn't constricting around the front of her either. Given Faye's …dimensions …constriction was a foregone conclusion. Along with the almost comic possibility of her arm actually loosing circulation when it would be hanging loosely on anyone else. That meant the second person adjusting the strap coming into contact with certain 'areas' causing the constriction to loosen both it and her arm. Areas that no one had, or probably ever would, have permission to touch. If that happened, even if purely by accident, it would guarantee serious, if not permanent, bodily injury for the person in question. None of the guys were stupid enough to take _that_ risk, not even the near concussed John. Ed and Meifa had both volunteered for the job and since Faye was certain that Ed would try some kind of shenanigans she decided Meifa would be best suited for this. That was before it felt like she was going to squeeze her good shoulder out of its socket.

"Jet said it needed to be tight so your arm wouldn't come loose." Meifa answered simply. It wasn't a forceful tone but it was one that said it would book no argument. Meifa knew she needed to do what was best for Faye, whether her cranky 'patient' liked it or not. She tightened the belt a little more then buckled it. "Does your arm feel all right?" She asked when she was finished.

"Just great." Faye said flatly. She was glad she had made everyone else leave the room before she got 'fitted' for this. They wouldn't have technically seen anything but…. The fact that her useless arm was now acting like a push up bra combined with the pressure the belt was putting on her shirt would have gotten her at least one snide remark from the guys or some dumb ones from Ed that she did not need to hear right now. They'd also look, then most likely gawk, even if it was just curiosity on how it turned out. While she normally didn't mind showing off the helplessness she now felt made it feel forced, and that feeling of not being in control did not sit well with her.

"Are you sure?" Meifa asked, not sure if she was being sincere along with grumpy.

"Yes the arm feels fine." Faye answered, realizing that honesty would get this over faster. "But I'm not kidding about my shoulder. It feels like something is digging into it near the top." Looking where Faye and described Meifa did see that the belt had partially twisted over itself on her back near the top of her shoulder. Not wanting to have to re-strap the belt and have it get tangled somewhere else she grabbed the section and tried to twist it back. Faye hissed in response.

"Sorry." Meifa apologized as she worked at the twist, which was proving to be stubborn. "You know you're very lucky." She said, hoping conversation would keep Faye's mind off what was going on.

"One in a billion shot that a gizmo like this was here." Faye agreed, glancing over to the Medkit.

"Not just that." Meifa replied. "You're lucky to have people around you that care so much." Faye let out a dismissive snort.

"Sorry kid but if there's one thing I've learned in life is that people don't actually 'care' about someone like me." She said as she fell back on her old standby, deny, deny, **DENY**. "Yeah there might be good people out there but they do it because they think it's the right thing, not because they care about me personally. With all the things I've done I'm not the type person anyone would consider worth saving."

"Of course you're worth saving." Meifa told her bluntly. "You're a good person, and you care about the people around you. If you weren't you wouldn't have stayed back on the cliff and made us keep going."

"It's called a temporary lapse in sanity." Faye retorted. "It's not exactly smart to throw your life away for people who don't really give a damn about you."

"If that was really true and you did it anyway it shows how good of a person you are." Meifa responded in kind. Faye opened her mouth to give another rebuttal but realized that no matter how she responded she couldn't prove Meifa wrong. "And it's not true. Every one of them cares about you, even if it is in their own way."

"Only as an obligation." Faye grumbled, trying to salvage the argument.

"That's not true either." Meifa answered. "Ed cares and she doesn't consider it an obligation."

"Because she's a kid and doesn't know any better." Faye almost snapped, getting tired of being outmaneuvered in this conversation.

"And what about John?" Meifa asked with a smile Faye could hear.

"It's the same thing as Kyle and Jet. It's his job to be concerned for other people." Faye replied, hoping she didn't answer that too quickly. She hadn't and it might have fooled most people but Meifa knew that wasn't what she thought.

"You don't really believe that." She stated. "Even if you did believe it, you really don't want to." She amended and she finally undid the twist in the belt. Faye let out a grunt of relief then turned to look at Meifa.

"And just what makes you think that?" She asked, annoyed that Meifa was delving into her personal business. Even more so that she was being so perceptive about it.

"When John and Jet were involved in that fight in the room with the astral gate." Meifa began. "After he went through, when we thought he would die, all of us were hurt by the thought of losing him. But you.." She paused and gave Faye a poignant look. "I could see that the hurt you felt was much worse, that you had just lost someone very important to you."

"John's important to all of us." Faye responded as she looked down slightly, knowing how weak her argument was.

"He is." Meifa agreed. "But more so to you. You just didn't realize it until that moment." As Faye tried to think of something to say that wouldn't sound like admitting the truth Meifa continued. "Neither did he." Now Faye looked back up at her in confusion. "When he brought you here he had the energy of someone very frightened, but not of someone afraid for themselves. He was afraid he was about to lose someone very important to him." Faye didn't know how to respond. Yes both she and John had become close during the time they had known each other, loath as she was to admit it to anyone. It looked like neither one of them knew just how close until today. She guessed that meant the old saying was true, you really didn't know you had until you lost it.

"Takes all kinds." Faye finally said, realizing that they had been lucky enough that the phrase had turned to 'almost lost it' for the both of them. She also realized something else, to her embarrassment. She was being given a heart-to-heart talk by someone not that much older then Ed! "And since when did you become my psychiatrist!" She protested loudly as she stood up. "Like kids know about that kind of stuff!" She said as she moved towards the door. The conversation was now over and though there were holes shot through her denials she had never admitted anything either. As far as Faye was concerned that was a win for her. Meifa didn't say anything in response but just smiled, knowing that despite the attitude she was now getting she had gotten through to the older woman.

As Faye opened the door two thoughts were racing through her head. One was the hope that Meifa would keep their conversation a secret. If there was one thing she didn't want it was to give the others blackmail material, even if by accident. Second was the conclusion that being insightful beyond your years was highly overrated. Especially if you were on the receiving end of that insight, which was really damn embarrassing.

In the hallway Faye saw Jet and Spike leaning up against the walls, waiting patiently, while John hand Kyle were looking at a larger version of MPU's map on Tomato's screen with Ed. Everyone turned towards her when the door opened but there were no remarks as Faye expected and they were all looking at her face. Whether they were doing it out of courtesy or fear Faye didn't know but she didn't question it.

"Everything good to go?" Jet asked as Faye and Meifa stepped into the hallway.

"As good as it's going to get." Faye groused and looked at the strap going over her shoulder.

"Then let's get going." Jet said, ignoring Faye's complaining. To spread out their firepower as efficiently as possible John and Kyle took the lead while Spike and Jet brought up the rear. Faye was grumbling about having to be 'protected' along with Ed and Meifa but there was no way they would put her in the line of fire in her condition.

"Well John did offer to carry you all the way back." Kyle told her when they stopped for a minute to check the map. Faye growled at the remark. "Yeah we kind of figured you'd think that. It wouldn't have been too good if you woke up and tried to bite his face off instead of just decking him."

"Not that getting a few more scars would be that noticeable." John put in, gesturing to the bandage line across his face and ignoring the large bruise she had given him. "It wouldn't have been worth the effort to lug her around anyway."

"What do you mean lug me around?" Faye snapped. While she wasn't that much shorter then John she weighed quite a bit less then he did. If there was one thing she wasn't going to let him get away with it was calling her fat.

"Well…." John started. Moving over to Faye he leaned in close to her ear and used his hand to cover his mouth so the others wouldn't be able to read his lips. Faye surprised herself by not flinching away from John and the only thing she did was listen. The only thing until a couple of muffled sentences later she inhaled sharply and turned bright red. She turned and glared at John, who calmly stood back. "What?" He asked in as innocent a voice as he could manage. It didn't take long for Faye to respond and unlike last time John was able to dodge the punch she threw at him. "Was it something I said?" He asked her dumbly. Faye stumbled with the missed punch but quickly regained her footing and wound up to throw another when Kyle stepped in and grabbed her wrist.

"As much as he probably deserves that." He stated, though looking as amused at her reaction as John was. "We might need him later so it's probably best if he stays conscious. I'm sure you'll have plenty of chances to beat him senseless when this is over." Faye glared at him, over to John then back to Kyle.

"Fine." She spat and yanked her arm out of Kyle's grip. She glared at John, still red in the face, but didn't take another swing at him. "Ass." She muttered under her breath.

"You'd think he'd learn." Jet remarked as he watched things unfold in front of him. After Kyle managed to keep Faye from killing John he turned to Spike. "You want odds on how badly he's going to come out of this one once she gets around to it?" He asked.

"Oh I think he's going to come out of it all right." Spike casually answered. Jet gave him a questioning look. "After what he said he probably doesn't have that much to worry about."

"You were able to hear what he said?" Jet asked. John had only been close to Faye when he dropped his voice but even in the tight confines of the hall hearing what he actually said was impossible. Jet thought it was impossible anyway. Then came the fact that despite the reaction Faye had Spike said that John would be all right. He had a good deal of skepticism about 'that' one but instead of explaining Spike only shook his head in response.

"I only managed to make out three words but trust me, they're more then enough." He replied.

"So what were they?" Jet asked, his curiosity now getting the better of him.

"Not here." Spike answered. "That would be bad." Was the only explanation he gave. Jet raised an eyebrow in response but didn't say anything. Figuring that he would get full details later he dropped the subject. He looked at the other three members of their group to see how they were reacting to the latest weird antics. Ed watched with her usual enthusiasm with things wild and chaotic, as well as the adults acting silly. Ein was sitting on the floor silently watching, and while it was hard to tell with a dog it looked like he was grinning from ear to ear. Jet couldn't understand why the Corgi looked so amused when he realized that with those ears he probably heard everything John had said. That made Jet even more curious as to what Spike had managed to catch. Meifa's reaction was the most surprising, because there was almost none at all. That was because while she hadn't heard what John had said she understood why completely. He wanted to keep her mind off how bad things were, not hurt her feelings. If she was angry at him she wouldn't have time to think about her shoulder or the situation they were in. He wasn't teasing her because he was mean; he was teasing her because he liked her. They walked in silence for several minutes before Ed decided to break the tension and walked up to John.

"Did John person mean what he said about Ed being his sister?" She asked.

"Of course I did." John answered. "Since the two of us met your little group," He nodded towards Kyle. "you've been like the sister we never had."

"Or wanted." Spike put in with a smirk before either Kyle or Ed could say anything.

"Oh I don't know about that." Kyle responded. "I wouldn't have minded having a little sister like her. My childhood would have been a lot more interesting with someone like her around."

"Childhood?" John joked. "Our lives are a lot more interesting _now_ with her around. If the three of us had been kids together we'd both be as nuts as she is."

"Now there's a scary thought." Faye put in with what may or may not have been a fake shudder. "Three Ed's."

"One little Ed is fun fun fun but for the best time ever experience Ed in loud and wild 3D!" Ed proclaimed as she grabbed John and Kyle by their arms and hoisted herself off the ground. "100% guarantee of satisfaction or Ed will just have to try harder!" She promised, oblivious to the fact she had almost made John and Kyle fall over from the sudden extra weight.

"And that she'll leave none of your nerves or sanity intact." Spike finished, still smirking.

"Well how else is Ed going to be the best Ed can be?" Ed asked as if it was the simplest question in the world. Not waiting for an answer she looked back up at Kyle. "Kyle person and John person will not regret having Ed for a little sister. Never never!" She declared as she started swinging herself between the two of them. The whole time she managed to keep Tomato perfectly balanced on her head as easily as if it was just a hat she had on. As the two of them tried to keep their own balance while still walking Kyle glanced up at John.

"Just so you know I'm holding you responsible for whatever happens from here on out." He promised in an accusing tone.

"You can't blame him for this one Kyle." Jet said from behind them. Looking back the three of them saw he had a knowing smirk of his own. "Can't really blame yourself either. The second either one of you set foot on the ship she adopted _**you**_." The two of them considered it for a second before looking back down at Ed, who was giving them a beaming smile.

"Good gravy he's right." John remarked, sounding like a man that just found out he had seconds to live.

"We were in over our heads from the start." Kyle added in similarly defeated tone.

"No one can ever out fool the fooling Ed!" Ed stated proudly as she stopped swinging and put her feet on the floor. She let Kyle and John get a couple of steps ahead of her (they were the leaders right now after all) and followed quietly behind, still with a large smile. The two looked back, shook their heads and continued forward with small smiles of their own.

Several floors below them Skynet was now moving at a frantic pace. After several minutes of hard running he had finally found a way up to the higher levels. It wasn't an elevator but a stairwell, which actually would work to his advantage at this point. He put his ear against the door at each landing, listened very carefully for a few moments then ran up another flight of stairs to the next floor before repeating the process. After stopping at several levels he finally got what he was searching for, the sound of voices. An evil smile started spreading across his face. He had finally caught up to them, now he had a couple of options. He could open the door and confront the humans head on, but they would no doubt hear the door opening and be ready for him. Charging headlong into a fight with this group had ended in less then ideal results every time so a change of plan was in order. But he couldn't wait for all of them to move past him and attack them from behind either. He didn't know the layout of this level and they could be on an elevator or transit car, thereby out of his reach, by the time he was sure they had all gone past.

That left him with a third and final option. This one would guarantee him the element of surprise, and increased the chances of killing his intended target exponentially. The only problem was it all depended on the door he was now hiding behind. Pressing on it with his empty hand he noticed a considerable amount of give in the metal. Now he really did have a reason to smile. Unlike the armored doors he had encountered before it appeared that the ones in the stairwells were of a more basic design. Made out of metal that was light, thin, and most importantly, far weaker then any of the security doors. Even the normally underpowered pistol ammunition in his MP5 would pass through it and out the other side with no problem. More importantly they would do it without losing that much of their velocity or deviation from the trajectory they had been fired from. Now sure of his plan Skynet brought his weapon to his shoulder and waited, listening as the voices came closer along with footsteps. His advanced hearing allowed him to calculate when someone was passing in front of the door and all he had to do was wait for one very talkative hacker to give him the signal he needed.

"That's because if it wasn't for Ed Bebop Bebop would be dull dull dull!" He heard Radical Edward exclaim. That was all he needed. Shifting his stance slightly he crouched down so the gun would be level with where the child's head should be and squeezed the trigger.


	12. Seperation

Chapter 12: Separation

"So are we anywhere close to where we're supposed to be?" John asked as he glanced warily down yet another hallway that wasn't part of the route they were taking. The maze like set up of this area of the base offered plenty of opportunities for an ambush. One winding corridor would trap them but at least then they'd know from what direction the attack was coming. The fact they had absolutely no idea where Skynet was only added to the tension that had been steadily been building up over the last few minutes.

"Not really." Kyle answered as he looked at the map displayed on his communicator. "There are a few more turns we need to take and then an elevator ride up to another level. After that….more walking." He finished.

"Great, so we get to starve to death before Skynet ever finds us." Faye said grumpily.

"You're not the only one who hasn't eaten lately Faye." Jet told her. "If the rest of us can stand it so can you." He added sternly. Faye responded with a huff and looked at the wall.

"It hasn't been that long since any of us ate." Kyle added. "You can't be that hungry now can you?" He asked. Spike and Jet let out a short laugh and were about to tell just how much food Faye cost them when Faye answered for herself. It was actually an involuntarily answer as at that moment her stomach decided to let out a loud gurgling growl. It was so loud it almost sounded aggressive, making everyone stop in their tracks and turn around to make sure that sound had come from a person. Sure enough they saw a frowning, slightly red in the face Faye glaring at them. Knowing that it was as much a result of her wounds and using the Medkit as much as not eating John decided to save her further embarrassment by asking Ed his next question before anyone could break out laughing at Faye.

"Did you bring another animal along you didn't tell anyone about?" He asked her in the tone of an adult who had just caught a child doing something they weren't supposed to red-handed.

"Yep yep!" She confirmed enthusiastically with no hesitation. "Ed caught cute little Mousey on Bebop Bebop and kept him verrrrrry secret." That was all John had needed but without being prompted Ed continued. "Ed and Ein take very good care of Mousey. Ein even teach Mousey to growl just like Ein can." Ein glanced up at her with a look that said 'Why are you involving _me_ in this?' but Ed ignored it as she seemed to realize something very important. "FAYE FAYE HAS EATEN ED'S NEW BEST FRIEND!" She shrieked accusingly and pointed at Faye's stomach with a look of mock horror that was replaced by one of her large smiles as Faye's eye began to twitch. Now the others were laughing and Faye glared at John for getting Ed started in the first place. John shrugged his shoulders in a helpless manner before Kyle decided to give him a hand.

"In that case we'd better get moving before she decides to eat you and Ein next Ed." He warned. In perfect unison both Ed and Ein gave terrified 'Yipes!' before running behind Kyle for protection, Ein's reaction being a bit less fake then Ed's.

"Ed is not good for eating!" Ed protested as she stuck her head out and tugged on Kyle's hand to get him moving. "Ed is just skin and bones!" At Kyle's feet Ein gave several loud barks, apparently explaining why he shouldn't be eaten either.

"Good arguments but we'd better get away from her quick." Kyle said as he began to let himself be dragged along at Ed's insistence. Faye was still glaring at John as he quickly moved to catch up with the two but looking around she saw everyone was now focused on Ed's antics, not her. She was going to hear more about this before they got back to the Bebop but now at least only part of the attention was on her. Still….

"How can one little kid be that damn annoying?" She growled mostly to herself but loud enough for everyone to hear.

"By knowing just what buttons to push, same as any annoying little kid. Only difference is when this kid pushes the buttons for some reason your ship becomes complete and utter chaos." John answered as they approached another T-junction. The map said to turn left but the three stopped so the others had a chance to catch up. John and Kyle facing the direction they were to go, Ed standing behind them.

"That's because if it wasn't for Ed Bebop Bebop would be dull dull dull!" Ed proudly proclaimed.

John and Kyle smiled at the remark but Ein had a very different reaction. His ears perked up as he heard a strange, but very soft scraping sound coming from being the door to their right. All it took was half a sniff and he let out a shrill, ear splitting bark. Kyle and John both knew Ein would never bark like that for no reason and after taking only a very fleeting glace at him to see which direction he was looking they immediately started to move. John began to bring up his shotgun but Kyle was even faster, grabbing Ed, turning around so he was directly between her and whatever was behind that door, and hunching over her protectively so no part of her was exposed. If he had been any slower she would have died, being behind the two of them and wide open to whatever was coming. But being around the Bebop crew he had learned to act and not think when he heard anything that sounded like a warning. Because of this when the torrent of bullets came streaming out the door his armored back was the only thing they would be able to hit.

John had barely gotten his shotgun up when bullets started punching their way through the access door that said it led to stairs. His first instinct was to jump in front of Ed to keep her from being hit but he saw that Kyle had already done so much more efficiently then he could. Since he couldn't defend that left one option, attack. He couldn't see his target through the metal door but that wasn't exactly a deterrent and he began pumping shells into as many different spots on the door as he could, making his way towards the slight cover the archway that lead to the path ahead of them provided. He wasn't sure if he hit anything with the first couple but they did tear large holes in the door and the glimpses of an ISSP uniform and hair told him to aim low and to the center with the next several. He saw movement and the bullets started to arch upwards into the ceiling before stopping completely. Unsure of whether Skynet was actually down or just reloading John turned towards Kyle to tell him to get moving but the other ISSP officer had already run past him.

Kyle had fully expected to be hit the instant he shielded Ed, even with his vest. His plan had entailed protecting Ed long enough for Skynet to be driven off or run out of ammo, then make sure she got to the others before the robot could recover. Of course the odds were that he'd be lying on the floor dead or bleeding out from a wildly fired bullet but Skynet apparently had decided precision and volume of bullets was more important then area of fire. It felt like his back was on the receiving end of jackhammer as every bullet strike he felt was in the same general area, and that was disconcerting at the same time. The vest was old and any second he expected to hear a wet thwack instead of the uncountable dull thuds he was hearing and feeling now. He really got a sinking feeling when he felt the thuds work their way up his back, certain he was about to take one to the head. Instead he heard bullets crashing into the ceiling and an instant later he heard the gunfire coming from Skynet's direction cease. It might be a trick but only one thought was going through his head now that the lead had stopped flying at them…..RUN! The direction they were supposed to go in was just one long straight corridor, so was the way they had come. He could see that the hallway ahead of them curved to the left so that left him with only one option. Picking Ed up and making sure no part of her was exposed to any more gunfire he sprinted past John and down the unknown path.

When Ein had let out his shrill bark the others had gone for their weapons but that was as far as they got before the shit hit the fan. Kyle had shielded Ed a split second before the telltale ZZZIIIIPPP of a fully automatic weapon firing sounded from their right. As John returned fire Jet grabbed Meifa by the shoulder and pulled her behind him while Spike and Faye aimed their weapons. Before he could tell either of them to stay put or move to cover Kyle the gunfire abruptly stopped and without any warning Kyle picked Ed up and headed down the center hallway. After firing the last of his shells John turned and ran after them.

"GET…!" Jet started to say when a loud crash came from the direction the gunfire had come from, followed by what was left of a metal door skidding along the floor, accompanied by a shower of sparks. Skynet came running after it, his weapon raised and pointed at them. All three of them fired at once, Faye flattening herself against the wall as best she could, Spike diving to the ground and Jet moving backwards, guiding Meifa towards an office they had passed that was only several feet behind them. Skynet took a more basic approach, waving the gun around keeping the trigger pulled. Everybody knew blind fire when they saw it but the didn't mean that Skynet couldn't get lucky. Using his own body as a battering ram Jet knocked the door to the office open and pushed Meifa inside before taking up a firing position similar to what John had used, keeping only his arm and as little of his head possible in sight. Spike fired from his prone position on the floor and even though Faye was the most vulnerable she didn't budge but crouched low and took use of her new Glock's burst capability, empting all seventeen rounds into Skynet in less then two seconds.

Skynet could have killed all of them easily in such close quarters but there wasn't time, not when Radical Edward was so close. He needed to pursue him as soon as possible unless he wanted to loose him again, probably for good. Because of that he had and resorted to firing long but wild and sweeping uncontrolled bursts in the humans' general direction. Their return fire was much more accurate but it did not impede his movements or come close to making him stop backing down the hallway his quarry had just escaped into. When he came to the turn he spared one glance down it, seeing only a shut door, fired one last burst at the humans to keep their heads down, then turned and ran full speed at the door.

"So we have any idea where we're going?" John asked as he ran after Kyle while reloading his shotgun.

"Not a clue." Came Kyle's response, not bothering to turn around as he ran with Ed through a doorway not that far from the turn they had just taken.

"Just thought I'd ask." John said as he pumped a fresh round into his weapon's chamber. After passing through the doorway he closed it and forgoing any fancy locking codes he just pointed his gun and blasted the control panel to bits before turning and running after the others. "It's funny." He added as he caught up to them. "A couple of months ago I would have considered that answer to be a bad thing."

"I guess that means we really _are_ beyond all hope." Kyle responded as they went through another door. Despite the very close call they had all just had the two of them were acting way too calm, which Kyle hoped was only because they were so focused on what they were doing they literally didn't have time to be scared.

"Another satisfied customer thanks to the services of Bebop Bebop and the exceptional ED!" Ed chirped, still sounding bright and cheerful even after almost getting shot. Well there was one vote for insanity. And if there was anyone they knew that was an expert on the subject it would be Ed. Kyle was starting to question why he was thinking that when someone was trying to kill them when a second blast from John's shotgun brought him back to the here and now. Just running blindly was going to get them nowhere, they needed to make some sort of plan, and fast. He stopped and turned around, allowing John to catch up to them before he started running again.

"Those won't hold him for long." He stated as the hallway made another turn.

"I know." John answered. "But what else are we going to do?"

"Wish I knew." Kyle replied grimly as they came to a third door. Passing through it Kyle decided to stop and take stock of their situation and surroundings. So far they had only passed three offices and a broom closet so they couldn't count on distractions slowing Skynet down for long, if he even stopped at all. After applying his buckshot deadbolt to the door's control panel John turned around and could tell by the look on his friend's face they needed to come up with something, fast. Looking around they say that this the hallway had turned into a straight corridor, no doors or branching hallways. But….

"Think that would work?" He asked, nodding towards what he had spotted. Kyle followed his gaze and saw he was looking at a midsize ventilation grate halfway up the wall. He immediately knew what John was thinking.

"If we don't make it too obvious it should." He said and John went to work without another word, putting down his shotgun and pulling on the grate. He could have just yanked it off but if he damaged it Skynet might notice it. Or worse, it would fall to the ground and more less announce 'There's someone in here!' It took a second but he got it to come off and stepped aside.

"Time for Ed and friends to get real sneaky on Big Brain?" Ed asked excitedly as Kyle brought her over and put her inside the vent.

"Not quite. We're too big to fit." Kyle told her as he made sure she scooted a fair distance into the dark. It wasn't quite true but there wouldn't room for them be able to use their weapons. At least Ed would be able to run if the worst happened. "But you're going to stay right here while we keep going and make sure he goes on a nice long wild goose chase. In the mean time you don't make any noise, don't even turn your computer on, and you don't move until after he runs by here and you're _**sure**_ he's not coming back. That will make him look really stupid. Can you do that?" Ed smiled and nodded her head enthusiastically at the thought. Kyle could barely see it but knew she understood. "Good. Now here's the important part. Once he goes by and you're sure it's safe you're going to go back to Jet and the others. You are _**not**_ going to come after us. You need to tell them that they're not going to either. " Even though neither of them could see it they knew her face fell at that.

"But Ed..." She started.

"No buts." John told her gently but sternly. "What's important is that you get away, and you don't have to worry about us. We'll catch up to you later." Ed didn't say anything but he could tell she was trying to come up with an excuse not to listen. "You're not going to disobey your big brothers now are you?" He asked.

"Ed will stay and be as quiet as Mousey before Faye Faye ate him." Ed promised, though not quite as excited as she had been a second ago.

"Knew we could count on you Ed. We'll be back in a little while." John promised her as he set the grate back on and banged it into place. After giving a slight tug to make sure it wasn't coming off he picked up his shotgun and signaled Kyle to start running, which they did at top speed. "You're not hit are you?" He asked once they had put enough distance between themselves and Ed so that she wouldn't hear it if Kyle said yes.

"No." Came his friend's response. "I'm going to be feeling this for a month but none of them got through. That means the only thing we have to worry about is getting Skynet as far away from Ed and the others as possible." He added as they ran towards a large open pass way that lead to a more brightly lit area.

"I'm more worried about what happens when he finds out he's been suckered and just decides to turn around." John said as they ran through the doorway that led into the brighter area. They took several slowing steps as they looked at the large cavernous area around them. The only walls and ceiling were the sides and top of the rock that the base was built into, save for a large network of metal scaffolding and braces that ran along them. Numerous pieces of heavy earth moving equipment and vehicles were scattered about, as well as stacks of steel beams, rebar, bags of powered cement, and other construction supplies. The brightness of the area was courtesy of several strategically placed banks of floodlights that illuminated the entire cavern and left no work area in the dark. On the other side of the cavern, straight ahead of them, they saw a much wider and taller tunnel that seemed to be made for the vehicles to access this area. To their right, on the other far end was a smaller tunnel whose floor was lined with the tracks of the transit system, most likely to be used for ferrying in supplies. Aside from vents near the ceiling the only other entrance was the one they had just come out of. If Kyle's memory of the map was correct there was no access to the transit system along the route they were supposed to follow. The vehicle tunnel only led farther away from that path which meant….

"I think we just found a solution to that problem." Kyle stated as he turned back to the hallway they just came out of.

Skynet was slowly working his way back up into a frenzy. Dealing with the other humans, coupled with the obstacles the ones he was chasing set up were costing him more and more time. He easily tore through the locked security doors and it only took him an instant to break down the doors to the offices, and closet, then scan the area but it meant that the humans he was pursuing had gained much more time in escaping. The locked security doors only added to his frustration. As flimsy a barrier they were he had to keep on looking behind him to make sure the other humans weren't about to shoot him in the back and delay him further. By the time he reached the third door his patience had run out and he simply kicked the door two times to knock it down and sprinted down the hallway. He could see that the hallway ended in a brightly lit area and when he reached it saw it was an area of the base that had been under construction when the complex had been abandoned. Construction vehicles and piles of supplies were scattered everywhere, giving the humans numerous perfect ambush spots. That was if they had chosen to stay and slow him further. Since protecting the child appeared to be their primary concern it was doubtful they had all stayed, but there was the possibility that one was left behind to give the other two more time to run. Taking all that into account Skynet walked quickly but stayed on alert, his weapon up and ready. There were two main tunnels leading away from this room, all he needed to do was calculate which one the humans would have taken and ….

His processing was interrupted when a large projectile slammed into the side of his head, causing the rest of his body to twist to the side in response to the force impacted by the bullet. The disorientation only lasted a nanosecond and he turned back to where the shot had come from, and promptly got two more bullets to the chest. The power behind the rounds were significant to almost make him stagger and that was enough time for Kyle Reese to duck back behind the bulldozer he was using for cover. He took note of the large revolver the human was wielding and now knowing what he was up against began firing at his choice of shelter. Metal pinged and sparks flew as the bullets hit home but Skynet knew there was no chance of the rounds passing through the vehicle but it would keep Reese in one place. All that was needed was to work his way to where he had a clean shot and the human as good as dead.

"HEY ASSHOLE!" A second voice shouted from behind him. Stopping his attack on Reese Skynet whirled around in genuine surprise at the sound of a second human voice. That surprise increased as he heard a shotgun boom and was struck in the chest. Both of them were here? They had actually sent Radical Edward ahead alone? The confusion only mounted as out of the corner of his eye he saw two grenades about to land in the hallway he had just come out of. He was able to mentally track them back to where the second voice, that was now identified as Conner hiding behind a pile of steel I beams, who must have thrown them while he was going after Reese. Just as he figured it out a third and fourth grenade joined the first two, coming from Reese's position. All four detonated at once with enough explosive force to make even Skynet flinch away from it, though he remained standing. Once the flash had receded Skynet turned back and saw what used to be the entrance to the hallway was now just a pile of twisted metal and large chunks of rocks. As inferior as they were these two humans were smart enough to know that sealing themselves in would not be the intelligent thing to do, they had more or less guaranteed their own deaths and anyone that was with them. It would have been wiser to block off the tunnel before he got here and make him find an alternate route. But if they had chosen this course of action….that… could only mean….

"HE'S NOT WITH YOU!" Skynet screamed in rage as he turned back around.

"Hey, real nice deduction there." John said sarcastically as he fully loaded his shotgun. "Was wondering how long it was going to take you."

"Some being of superior intelligence." Kyle added as he reloaded his magnum. "You were stupid enough to fall for the oldest trick in the book, _twice_." Skynet couldn't get to Radical Edward now, not quickly, with the large opening he had been given. He was beyond livid now, both at losing his target and being fooled so completely by a couple of animals. Fortunately he did have the option of venting his frustration on those same animals, and ran straight for the bulldozer Reese was hiding behind, firing his weapon and screaming incoherently the entire time.

The crew of the Bebop didn't have that much time to act once Skynet had run out of their line of sight. They had two options, go after the others and try to help, or stay along their original path and make a dash for safety. Either one seemed like a bad idea, put Meifa back in danger or abandon John, Kyle and Ed. Since there were no good options Jet decided to go with both.

"Spike, you're coming with me." He ordered as soon as he saw no one had been hit. "Faye, take Meifa and keep on following the map, and don't stop for anything. If you don't hear from us in five minutes, start running." Faye opened her mouth to say something. "Don't argue and get going!" He barked as he put a fresh clip in his gun and started running after Skynet, Spike falling in beside him.

"So what exactly are we going to do?" Spike asked as they made the turn in the hallway. Running headlong into a fight with no plan was usually his chosen method of operation, not Jet's.

"Give John and Kyle as much of a distraction as we can." Jet explained as they squeezed through a metal security door looked like it had been ripped in half. "With Skynet focused on us they'll be able to find some way to lose him, if we're lucky they already did lose him and we'll keep him occupied while they get back to the ship."

"Not expecting to come back from this one?" Spike asked calmly as they stepped over the remains of a second door. He wasn't being critical of Jet's idea; as a matter of fact he couldn't come up with anything better that would help the three that Skynet was chasing and keep themselves alive. On the other hand to keep things from ending badly for John, Kyle and Ed things would most likely end really badly for the two of them.

"I don't know about you but I'm certainly _hoping_ to come back from this one and going to try really hard to see that it happens." Jet clarified somewhat sarcastically. "But if that's not possible we need to make sure we don't die too quickly and slow this bastard down as much as we can."

"Spoken like a true optimist." Spike replied wryly as they came to a third door. This one was actually in once piece but lay crumpled and dented on the floor. "Hope you actually have a plan for getting out alive then because…"

CLANG!

Both of them stopped and turned around with their weapons raised, half expecting to see Skynet charging towards them after dropping through a vent in the ceiling. They were right about the vent and saw a grate lying in the middle of the floor from a shaft on the wall. But instead of a murderous liquid metal robot they saw a head of wild red hair with amber colored eyes sticking out of the wall and looking in their direction.

"Groundhog Ed has looked and not seen its shadow and that means it's time for groundhog Ed to pop out of the ground!" Ed cheerfully announced and quickly pulled her head back inside. Before either Jet or Spike could comment they heard an enthusiastic "POP!" from inside the vent followed a split second later by Ed lunging headfirst out of it. She held her computer in her hands but tossed it into the air, landed with a somersault and expertly 'caught' the computer with the sole of her foot, balancing it perfectly. Even if Jet and Spike had any suspicions about this being Skynet in disguise to begin with they knew that only Ed could act like that.

"Well that's one out of three." Jet remarked. "Now let's…." Before he could say anything a loud roar thundered from further down the hallway. The sound of the roar was followed by a strong blast of air and everything started shaking. Jet and Spike braced themselves on the walls to keep from falling and Ed even lost her 'grip' on Tomato. The machine slipped off her foot and fell but she was able to catch it before it hit her in the face. The three exchanged silent looks before Spike and Jet turned around and started running towards where the blast had come from. They didn't even bother to tell Ed to go the other way. With that explosion happening so soon after they had left her there was no way she wasn't going to come and see what happened. That might have appeared dumb to Jet and Spike, if not for the fact that they were running in the same direction and the explosion could have just as easily been meant for John and Kyle instead of Skynet. They didn't get that much of a chance to debate the intelligence of what they were doing because the hallway suddenly turned into a wall of fallen metal and chunks of rock. Smoke was still clearing and smaller debris were falling but all of them could see the passage was completely sealed and no chance of getting through the collapse.

"Now that's impressive." Spike said after no one else said anything. Jet and Ed didn't add to the comment. If Spike found this impressive then he could tell that there was a lot more damage then what they could see, and that really put John and Kyle's fate in doubt. Taking out his communicator Jet set it so only Kyle's would pick up, no sense in worrying the others if they didn't have to. Things went downhill immediately when Jet saw there was no signal at all.

"He's not answering." Was the only explanation he gave Spike and Ed. "That doesn't mean he's dead." He added. While the most likely reason was that Kyle's communicator was destroyed in the explosion Jet also remembered when he'd pulled this same thing on Mars he had to shut it off so Skynet wouldn't be tipped off to what was going on. If that was the case then they would have to wait until he tried to contact them. In the meantime he reset the signal so Faye would be able to pick up. "Faye, we've got good news and bad news."

"Jet what the hell just happened?" Faye demanded the instant her face came on screen. "One second everything's quiet the next the whole place starts shaking!"

"That's the bad news." Jet answered, ignoring the shouting. "John and Kyle set up a roadblock so Skynet wouldn't be able to backtrack on them." He used his communicator to show her the collapse. "The good news is we found Ed and she's all right." He turned the device to show her both Ed and Spike in the same shot, in case she had any doubts about who was calling.

"So what do we do now?" She asked after a few seconds of silence.

"We get back to the Bebop, get Ed and Meifa to a safe place, then come back here with as much help as we can find." He told her simply. "They gave us this chance Faye, we can't waste it." He continued, knowing a protest was coming. He didn't want to leave them behind either but now was the best opportunity they had to escape and get the kids out of harms way.

"Those idiots better not get themselves killed before we get back." Faye finally answered.

"I don't think they would have done something like this without the intention of getting out alive." Jet assured her as the three of them started running to rejoin the others.

Jet was correct in that John and Kyle had every intention of leaving the base alive. Actually having a plan to carry out that intent, that was another story entirely. Right now the two of them would be thankful to just be able to leave the room alive, and that was becoming less and less likely with each passing second. Skynet was sprinting towards Kyle's hiding spot, spraying bullets to keep him put and occasionally twisting around to fire a burst at John to keep him from helping or escaping. His plan was actually working very well but before he could reach Kyle the two of them heard a burst cut off in the middle followed by the clack of the MP5's bolt locking on an empty chamber. Even Skynet needed time to reload and John and Kyle took advantage, coming out from behind their respective cover and emptying their weapons into the liquid metal machine. Skynet staggered back but was still reloading his weapon at the same time. John and Kyle ducked back behind cover to reload their own weapons but both knew it only a moment's reprieve. With one last good run Skynet would be on top of Kyle and they knew there would be no way to stop him once he got going again. John had to keep that from happening and there was only one way to do that…make himself the target.

"So what's next?" He shouted at the machine as all three of them were reloading. "You've already been beaten by a kid hacker that's not all there and a couple of dumb street cops." That got Skynet's attention and he turned to look at the pile of I beams where John was hiding. Not hearing gunshots or footsteps John knew he machine had stopped so he continued. "At this rate you'll be outwitted by a coffee machine next, but maybe that's setting the bar too high. One of those remote controlled vacuum cleaners, maybe that's more of your speed." Chancing a quick glance around the corner of the metal John saw that did was now facing him, and looking really pissed. He quickly took the last of his grenades off his belt and pulled the pin. "Yeah that seems about right. Being as dumb as you are, there's nowhere to go but down."

Skynet didn't say anything but the next instant John heard bullets ricocheting off the metal beams. Grabbing his shotgun one handed he lifted it, turned it sideways, and placed it against the beams to absorb the recoil, aiming it almost blindly. Almost because he was sure Skynet would simply run straight at him and not bother to dodge anything. The blast still shook his wrist but the improvised brace did its job and the gun stayed in his hand, without breaking or tearing anything. He heard a dull splat and the bullets stopped, giving him the opportunity to put part two of his plan into action.

Kyle could see what John was planning, and how it could help get them out of here. Skynet was so angry now he was responding to verbal taunts the way an ill tempered human would, with blind rage and almost no thought. If they could keep his attention going back and forth between the two of them they would be able to make a run for it. Once Skynet had started moving towards John he made a dash for a dump truck in the direction of the vehicle tunnel as inconspicuously as he could. He kept an eye on the robot's movement incase it decided to change its mind and come after him again. Skynet remained oblivious to his movements, or just didn't care, and kept on running towards John. He heard John's shotgun go off and Skynet was hit dead center, throwing off his aim and making him stop firing. Now that there was near silence and he was almost to the truck Kyle started to yell his latest round of insults to get Skynet's attention when he saw John lean out from cover, toss a grenade underhanded right into Skynet's path, then duck back under cover. Since it was one of the few weapons that would impair the machine Kyle expected him to stop and back up, or at least change the direction he was taking to get to John. Instead Skynet rushed towards the grenade, bent over, scooped it up with one of his hands, then hurled it not at John directly but at the tangle of scaffolding and ductwork above John's head. John wasn't watching what was happening, staying behind the beams to avoid shrapnel, and didn't see the grenade sailing above his head. Kyle tried to shout a warning but the grenade detonated before the words could leave his mouth. John flinched at the noise and blast concussion, then looked up to see avalanche of jagged metal and rock falling straight towards him.

"MOTHERF…" The rest of his curse was cut off as he dove out of the way to avoid the wreckage, which landed with a teeth rattling crash. Unfortunately that dive also put him out in the open, something that Skynet had been hoping for. John was aware enough to realize that so when he hit the ground he immediately jumped to his feet and started running, turning around to fire at Skynet. Skynet fired back and the two engaged in a running gun battle, neither able to hit the other due the erratic movements of both. While it was a good thing John wasn't being hit Kyle saw that they were both running towards the transit system tunnel, while he was still making a break for the vehicle tunnel. If they got separated Skynet would be able to pick them off one at a time. When he reached the mouth of the vehicle tunnel Kyle stopped and took aim at Skynet with his Magnum.

"OVER HERE YOU METAL DIPSHIT!" He yelled at the top of his lungs and began firing. At this range it was doubtful he'd be able to hit him with a pistol but hopefully the insult and the fact that he was being attacked would take Skynet's attention away from John. Skynet's attention was drawn away from killing John, but it was by something that all of them took notice of. Above their heads there was a long, loud, and very ominous moan of weakening metal. Temporarily forgetting their efforts to kill each other all three of them looked up and saw the metal work that made up the ceiling was starting to buckle, and the rock above it was cracked and trying to fall. Only the grenade-weakened scaffolding stopped it, and they all knew that it wasn't going to hold for very long. It lasted even less time then Skynet would have estimated and began to fall in a domino like effect. It started at the site of the grenade blast and quickly worked its way outward like a wave, with tons of metal and mountainside crashing to the ground. Kyle instinctively backpedaled into the tunnel and could only watch as the roof began to cave in, the crashing rock throwing a dust cloud that completely obscured his vision of the room. Some of the dust settled but between that and most of the lights going out he was able to only make out two shadowlike shapes in the distance. Both appeared to have been stunned by the sudden collapse but not hit. One shadow rushed over towards the other one, who was bringing up his weapon. The first shadow brought the butt of his own weapon down on the other's gun, knocking it from his hand. Without even brining the gun back up the first shadow fired, his weapon aimed right at the underside of the second's chin. The second shadow's head snapped back and he staggered be stayed upright, grabbing the first shadow's gun and began fighting him for it.

Kyle now knew who was who and was about to try to give John covering fire when the chamber rumbled and a fresh wave of rock cascaded down from the ceiling, again obscuring his vision with thick dust. At first he didn't see anything but could see the flash of a gun going off, and judging by its rate of fire it had to be the shotgun. As the dust again settled he saw one of the shadows firing at the second, forcing him to run towards the transit tunnel. The first continued firing until Kyle saw him pump the gun and no shot came after. Taking advantage the second shadow grabbed what had to be part of the ceiling, whirled around, and flung it at the first shadow. Whatever had been thrown struck the first shadow in the chest as he was reaching for his belt, causing him to drop the shotgun and clutch his chest with both hands. The second shadow stopped moving and faced the first, looking ready to charge at any instant. He would have if not for rumbling that replaced the groan of metal. This time instead of small parts of the mountain falling now vehicle-sized boulders were dropping from above. This wasn't just part of the ceiling coming down, the entire mountainside was coming with it.

Both shadows realized what was happening and before either of them could move a boulder bigger then the bulldozer Kyle had hidden behind landed between the two of them. Kyle could no longer see the second shadow but saw the first knocked down from the shockwave the boulder created. The shadow got up and started running towards the vehicle tunnel, which Kyle backed further into, keeping his magnum up and ready. Chancing a look Kyle glanced over to where the second shadow had been and was able (barely) to see him making a sprint towards the transit tunnel. Looking back to the first shadow and saw whoever it was kept on glancing up as more debris rained down, forcing him to twist and sidestep like a football player avoiding tackles. Only in this case he'd be crushed to death instead of merely stopped. He was almost to the entrance to the tunnel when one large boulder almost landed right on top of him, forcing him to dive to the ground. Instead of trying to get up he leapt forward from his position on the ground, his arms getting halfway into the tunnel when he landed. He stayed on the ground and frantically crawled forward as the cave in reached its crescendo, sounding like the entire planet was falling on their heads. A final plume of dust covered the mouth of the tunnel, still blocking Kyle's view of who it was. As a precaution he took several more steps back, never taking his gun off the target, who he now heard coughing hoarsely. He could see him getting up and a second later a dirt covered John staggered out of the cloud of dust, looking like he was about to fall over at any second.

"Damn son of a bitch made me lose my gun! Again!" John exclaimed, still coughing, as he stumbled over to the side of the tunnel and leaned his back on the wall. "Whoa whoa take it easy it's me!" He exclaimed when he saw the gun leveled at him.

"You've got three seconds to prove that." Kyle warned him, cocking the hammer. John grabbed his chest and slid down the wall to sit before answering.

"I can give you an example of how much of a little hellion Ed can be when she really puts her mind to it. Going to be pretty boring though since all the stories she's told me she probably already told you to." He added with a laugh.

"Probably." Kyle agreed as he slowly lowered the hammer of his gun. He wouldn't need an actual story. Skynet always referred to Ed as 'he' thinking, like everyone else that met her for the first time, that she was a boy. If the person in front of him knew the truth it had to be John. "Your wound all right?" He asked, knowing where that chunk of rock Skynet had thrown hit him. John opened the top two buttons on his shirt and looked down.

"It isn't reopened." He hissed in response. "No blood and nothing feels busted." He said as he checked himself more thoroughly. "I'll be able to last until we get out of here." He assured Kyle, but winced as he said it. "But shit this hurts." He amended.

"Well if you're all right then we'd better find out where we're going." Kyle said he holstered his gun and took out his communicator. Since John wasn't doubled over in pain Kyle would take his word that he'd be fine until they got to a real hospital, or at least ran across a Medkit. "Jet, Spike, Faye? Can anyone still hear me?" He asked, not knowing if the device had been damaged during the firefight and cave-in.

"Yeah we can hear you." Jet's gruff voice answered as he face flashed onscreen. "But that doesn't mean we're going to answer you yet."

"What you're starting to answer your bonsai plants instead?" Kyle asked sarcastically. "You haven't been into Ed's secret mushroom stash again have you?" He added. Jet's face scrunched up in annoyance and in the background he could hear Ed giggling. Only Ed he noticed, but that wasn't a surprise since Meifa probably didn't know while Faye and Spike had gone on their own little trips and didn't appreciate being secretly drugged any more then Jet did.

"All right I believe it's you but do you have to use the embarrassing parts to let us know?" Jet growled in annoyance.

"Well it wouldn't be that fun if I didn't now would it?" Kyle asked back. To which Ed answered with a loud 'Nope nope! Not fun at all.' He saw Jet turn his annoyance towards Ed for a moment before deciding it wasn't worth the effort and turned back to the communicator.

"Now that that's out of the way…" He warned, to show that he had his fill of this particular joke and they needed to concentrate on what was important. "Is John with you, is he all right?" He asked, knowing he wouldn't have to ask if it really was John who was with him. Kyle wouldn't even be calling unless he was alone or knew he was with John.

"Yes on both counts." Kyle answered and turned his communicator towards John so everyone could see. "A little more banged up then before but all in all okay." John gave an exaggerated thumbs up and opened his mouth to say something but had his face contort into a grimace and grabbed his chest.

"Going for the tough guy act eh John?" Jet asked in good humor when he saw John's attempt to talk. In response John just rolled his eyes and shook his head. Since it didn't look like John was trying to cover up anything serious Jet got back to business. "What happened to Skynet, and why the hell was this place just shaking..._again._" Well at least they knew what they had done to keep Skynet away from Ed.

"Skynet decided to bring the roof and everything else down on our heads." Kyle explained, not mentioning that technically John had enabled him to do it in the first place. "I saw him running towards a second tunnel that led out of where we were. I suppose it'd be too much to hope that he got buried before he made it."

"The way he keeps coming back I wouldn't count on it." Jet agreed. "But the farther away he is from any of us the better." He continued before turning his attention away from the communicator again. "Ed, have MPU come up with a map so they can meet back up with us. If that would take too long give them a direct route to the Bebop."

"Analyzing schematics." MPU's voice acknowledged and Jet's face disappeared, replaced but a sprawling picture of the base's floor plan. "Intersecting routes to surface unavailable. Calculating alternate route to Bebop." He stated and showed Kyle the path they needed to take. A path that made him frown.

"That looks a lot longer then the way we were originally going." He said with some level of concern. "MPU, based on where we are now, which group would get there first?" He asked.

"At maximum calculated speed the group I am currently a part of will reach the ship twenty five point four seven minutes faster then yours." The computer answered. Kyle looked over at John, who was also now frowning.

"Hope you guys have a safe trip then." Kyle said when he turned his attention back to the communicator.

"I don't suppose any of us could talk you two out of this?" Jet asked as his image came back onscreen, knowing full well what the two of them were doing and there was no way he could talk them out of it.

"With almost half an hour of lead time on us? No way." Kyle answered. "Well run the whole time if we can but if we're not there by the time you are you need to take off and not look back. We'll be fine on our own so don't worry." Jet was frowning but it didn't look like he was going to argue.

"All right." He finally said. "Just make sure you keep that radio working so we can find you when we come back."

"Just make sure you guys get Ed and Meifa someplace secure, preferably an army base." Kyle told him. Jet gave a short laugh at the suggestion.

"We'll do our best." He promised. "Just make sure you guys are still here when we get back." He joked. Kyle responded with a short laugh and shook his head before the communicator's screen went dark.

As Jet but his communicator back he turned to the others. Spike and Faye looked like while they didn't like the idea of leaving without John and Kyle they accepted it as a fact. He had honestly expected an argument from Faye but she saw that the two had already decided Ed and Meifa's lives were more important then their own, and nothing was going to change their minds. If nothing else she personally understood unwavering stubbornness when she saw it. Oddly enough the two kids didn't look like they were going to voice an objection either. In fact the response he got was a bit of a surprise.

"Ed isn't worried." Ed declared. "Ed knows big brother John and big brother Kyle will find their way back to Bebop Bebop." She stated, utterly confident that the two wouldn't let her down.

Back in the vehicle tunnel the feelings weren't as upbeat as Ed's.

"Run the entire way?" John asked suspiciously as Kyle put his communicator back on his belt.

"Yeah I know, he didn't buy it either." Kyle admitted. "If you're feeling up to it we should give it a shot anyway." He added as he took out his magnum and began to replace its spent bullets.

"Not like we have anything better to do." John agreed as he stood up. "And of course I'm up to it." He added, trying to sound insulted.

"Not without a weapon you're not." Kyle countered as he snapped the cylinder closed and reached behind his back. "Hope you still got all that ammo you picked up earlier." He said as he tossed his backup Glock to John.

"Of course I do." John said as he caught the Glock and checked to make sure a round was chambered. "Whenever you have plenty of ammo you never have the gun for it." Kyle was about to remark how true it was with all the shotgun shells John now had but there was a new groaning sound from the wall John had been leaning against. John stumbled away quickly and it was just in time as the groaning intensified and without warning the wall exploded inward, bringing down part of the ceiling and vent system with it. John backpedaled away from the wall, firing into the general area where the explosion happened as well as into the fallen duct. Kyle fired two shots as well but after a second of dust settling they saw that it wasn't Skynet bursting through the wall, just that all the pressure from the main collapse had compromised the very edge of the tunnel, causing it to collapse as well. There was no sound or movement from the section of ventilation and with the bullet holes they put it in they could see there was nothing inside. It was still a dangerous situation, the spear like pieces of rebar sticking out all over the place would have skewered John if he had stayed put and the falling duct could have cracked their skulls but all they had done was pump bullets into a concrete wall and flimsy sheet metal.

"We are getting way too jumpy." Kyle said, exhaling loudly and holstering his gun as the mini adrenaline rush wore off.

"Jut a _little _bit." John agreed as he lowered his own weapon. "That would have been something though wouldn't it? Survive all this just to get brained by something like that." He said as kicked the fallen ductwork.

"Yeah, I may have to start hating all ventilation ducts now." Kyle joked as he started to walk down the hallway.

"Well they do have their uses." John pointed out as Kyle heard him fall in behind him.

"We never would have been able to hide Ed as well as we did." Kyle admitted.

"Oh more then that." John remarked.

"Like what?" Kyle asked in confusion.

"Well for starters…" John began. "…they allowed me to find out Radical Edward was really a female." Skynet finished. Kyle stiffened up and the sound of the voice. For an instant confusion reigned in his mind but he quickly figured it out. While walking though the base he remembered passing by many ventilation grates. One of them must have been connected to where Skynet was, and with his superior hearing he would have been able to catch everything they said. Another thing became crystal clear to Kyle; he was dead. He couldn't run or hide, and fighting would be useless. That meant there was only one thing he could do that had any consequence, he just hoped that Skynet wouldn't notice it and hold off killing him until he could do it.

Skynet, still in the form of John Conner, stood calmly behind Kyle, gun raised and waiting. He was curious to see what type of action the human would take. Would he try to run? Turn and go out fighting perhaps? Whatever it was it didn't matter to the machine. The human had ruined his best chance at getting close to Radical Edward by sending the other humans off base, possibly off planet, without them. He had officially outlived his usefulness and Skynet was more then happy to thin out the ranks of Radical Edward's protectors.

The human had gone rigid when he had first used his real voice, but now his body posture changed. His shoulders slumped and he slowly put his hands on his hips, oddly enough not going for his weapon right off. He looked at the floor and shook his head, letting out a loud, defeated sigh. Skynet knew it was a sign he had accepted his fate, his final action decided upon and forthcoming. He was correct as the human brought his head back up, grabbed the handle of his gun and spun around to face him.

Jet and the others had only gone a short way before his communicator beeped again, followed by what sounded like cross between a sigh and a groan. The combination of the sudden call and the odd sound caused them all to stop and look at Jet. He looked just as confused as the rest of them and started to reach for his communicator when another sound came through unannounced.

BANG!

They all flinched at the unexpected sound of the gunshot, which was followed a split second later by the heavy thud that was unmistakably a body hitting the ground. Jet held up one hand to the others, and they all got it. 'Keep your mouths shut and no noise!' Jet didn't know what was going on but he slowly took the device out and looked at it. The picture he saw looked like he was staring at the ceiling, like the other communicator had been dropped. Taken together with what had already happened, that meant something was very very wrong. What happened next confirmed their worst fears. Laughter. It wasn't loud and it wasn't manic, it was the type of low arrogant laugh you got when someone was very proud of something that they had just done, usually underhanded. It was also in Skynet's voice

Skynet had to admit there was something immensely satisfying about seeing the human crash to the ground. He didn't move and he was no longer breathing, but a bullet through the forehead tended to do things like that. He didn't know how Valentine was able to survive her own injuries, let alone appear fairly healthy so soon afterwards, and resolved not to make the same mistake should he ever get the opportunity again. He could draw out the suffering from Radical Edward, her protectors on the other hand had proved they needed to be dealt with swiftly and efficiently.

(Maybe that's what it is.) Skynet thought to himself with a laugh as he began to walk over to the human's corpse. (The satisfaction of a job well done.)

Jet heard footsteps that came closer and eventually he saw part of someone who was wearing a light blue button up shirt walk into view, holding a still smoking gun at his side. Knowing he had to act quickly and quietly he looked at Ed and mouthed 'MPU'. Ed immediately complied and began typing on her computer as quietly as she could. Jet continued to watch as the person he saw crouch down and brought his face into view. It looked exactly like John, down to the patchwork bandages and brand new bruise Faye had given him. He had put the gun away and now reaching over the communicator, intent on stealing what he could from what had to be Kyle's dead body. He started to pull his arm back and happened to look down, right at Jet's face.

"Oh that's real cute." Skynet snarled, realizing the jig was up.

"MPU erase everything that's on Kyle's communicator!" Jet shouted, knowing they had just been caught to.

"Deleting." MPU calmly responded.

"NO!" Skynet shouted and grabbed for the communicator. It was the last thing Jet saw before the picture dissolved into static.

Damn the humans! His entire plan was ruined! If he had seen the map he would have been able to work his way to the Bebop faster then they could have, cut off their escape, possibly even destroyed the ship itself to make sure. Even if they detected him with nowhere left to run they would at his mercy. Now thanks to the dead human in front of him he was back to square one. Wander around this mammoth complex hoping to run into them a second time. The odds of that happening once were slim, now they had jumped to astronomical. All because of this worthless meatbag and his loyalty to the others. Furious Skynet aimed the magnum he had taken from the human's dead hand and emptied the remaining rounds at the unmoving body. When the hammer clicked on an empty chamber Skynet brought up the communicator and was about to pulp what was left of the human's head with it when he got a better idea.

"Command complete." MPU announced. "Data remanence deleted and overwritten."

"At least now the bastard doesn't know where we're going." Jet almost growled. That was on problem taken care of now…. he looked over at the others. He could see they had guessed what had happened, but they didn't want to say or do anything. Nobody wanted to be the one confirm news like this, so it was up to him. "Kyle's gone." He said simply. There was no doubt in his mind Kyle was dead. Skynet hadn't attempted any elaborate trickery and had honestly been surprised when he discovered Kyle's communicator on and broadcasting. Meifa brought her hands up to her mouth to cover up a sob as she began crying. Ein started whining loudly and lowered his head to the floor, his whines almost mirroring Meifa's sobs. Faye grimaced and turned away, not wanting to the others to see her getting emotional as well. Spike's expression remained impassive but Jet could see his eyes harden. That only left…

"Is John gone to?" Ed asked. Jet honestly didn't know how Ed badly would take this. The fact that is was a short and simple question and was now quietly waiting for an answer told him not as well as it appeared. Most disturbingly she only used John's first name. He couldn't remember the last time she had done that with anyone. It wasn't as outward a reaction as Meifa or Ein but she was never that calm or quiet, which in it's own way was so drastic that it made all of them worry.

"I don't know." He told her honestly. "Kyle said he saw someone running for another tunnel. He didn't know if he made it." The answer didn't make Ed worry any less. Jet could tell from the fact she remained silent. "I know you're going to miss Kyle, all of us are." He said as he crouched down in front of her. "Just like all of us are worried about John. What I also know is that he wouldn't want us to stand around worrying about him and put his punk kid sister in danger." Using the words John had used proved to be a good choice because Ed's smile started coming back. "We're not going to give up on him, but we're not going to go against what he thought was important either. That means we keep moving until we get back to the Bebop. Understand?"

"Ed will not let big brother John down!" Ed promised.

"All right then let's make sure we don't." Jet replied as he stood up. "Spike, you take the lead." He instructed. Spike nodded and started walking, Faye following close behind. As Ed fell in behind the two of them Jet walked over to Meifa and put his arm around the girl. Thanks to his words she wasn't openly crying anymore but he could still see tears in her eyes.

"Dealing with it, never gets any easier, does it?" She asked with a sniff.

"No it doesn't." Jet replied as he pulled her closer and they slowly started following the others. "And it shouldn't. If it ever does it means you've stopped caring." He knew what she was talking about. Losing someone close to you always hurt, and dealing with that loss was always hard. Meifa hadn't known Kyle or John that long but being such a kindhearted person as well as her Feng Shui insight to other people made it easy for her to become attached to them. In some ways what had just happened was worse then when she had lost her father, Jet realized. She had never believed he was dead to begin with, all through their search she never lost hope and when she had finally found him in the hyperspace tunnel she had been able to make peace with the fact that he wasn't going to be able to come back, that she was about to lose him for good. Now…now she had someone violently ripped away from her with literally no warning. A sudden trauma like that was always worse then an end people could see coming. Jet was positive she'd be able to work her way through it. He knew that despite her age she wasn't naïve and she knew how the world worked. Bad things happened to good people, and as much as you hoped things weren't fair. If they were people like John and Kyle wouldn't be the minority in ISSP, they'd be in the overwhelming majority.

As for himself…Well both John and Kyle were policemen and had accepted the risks that came with the job. After his own experiences with the corruption at ISSP Jet found it hard to see the 'brothers in arms' or 'close knit family' aspect of the job but for the first time in a long while he saw that in John and Kyle. Any loss of a good person was a tragedy, but when someone killed a cop they killed a brother or sister to every other cop. When that happened nobody lets up until that person was in the morgue. That was how it was supposed to go anyway. Jet's cynicism towards ISSP usually had that thought relegated to the realm of wishful thinking since a lot of times the killers were other cops. Though he realized that all of them, even though Faye and Spike had said nothing, were now thoroughly in that mindset. Skynet had just given them all a very personal reason to see him destroyed, one that provided even more motivation then they already had. As Robert Conner would so eloquently put it when Jet finally met him 'You don't fuck with family.'

Several minutes prior:

"Goddamned metal bastard!" John shouted as he turned back to the now blocked tunnel entrance. "You arrogant walking piece of shit!" He yelled as he stormed over to the debris pile and pounded on it with his fist. Of course it didn't budge but that wasn't the point. He had seen what Skynet was doing the moment he turned his own shotgun on him and began driving him back towards the transit tunnel. He had tried to shout a warning to Kyle, but the cave-in had rendered gunfire almost impossible to hear, let alone his voice. If he couldn't hear him John had tried to visually alert him. Being hit in the head with a heavy piece of rock would have knocked anyone for a loop and if Skynet wanted his act to be convincing he would have to fall to the ground, or at the least act confused and disoriented. That might have given John enough time to escape and Skynet to be squashed flat. Instead the rock he chose was too heavy and hit Skynet in the chest. And the damn bastard had used it to his advantage, acting just like John would have if he had been hit. With such bad visibility it might have been enough to convince Kyle that, at the least, there was a good chance that was really him. John had been so furious that he almost ran back at the machine, intent on making sure they were both buried in the rubble. He would have if a rock the size of a truck hadn't fallen right in front of him. Knowing he couldn't warn Kyle or make it over to the other tunnel John turned and ran towards the transit system entrance. He had chanced a look back and saw Skynet running for the tunnel Kyle was in, and it looked like he was going to make it.

It was only after John got to the relative safety of the tunnel he took stock of how bad things now were. If Skynet made it to the tunnel even if he couldn't fool Kyle, and John doubted he could with all the things the machine wouldn't know, he could easily kill him before tracking down the others. Both he and Skynet were now lost but with no fatigue to slow him down the machine could find the others, even by chance, if they slowed down or ran into some kind of trouble that MPU couldn't have seen. He had to let them know Skynet was still actively searching for them, and that Kyle was in all likelihood dead. Finished venting his frustration on the wall John turned around and began running. His own means of talking to the others had been destroyed during his trip through the gate but this place had its own communication network. He just hoped it was powerful enough to broadcast on the frequency they used. If not then he'd go for broke and use the base's PA system. Not too subtle but he could at least give them a warning that Skynet couldn't stop or contradict.

After running for several minutes he began to remember the familiar feeling of being a rat in a maze he had experienced the first time he was lost in these tunnels. Running down random tunnels hoping to find what he was looking for proved to be just as futile now as it was then. So far the only things he had found were several supply storage areas but nothing in the way of communications equipment. Approaching another four-way intersection he was beginning to curse this place for being so complex and started to turn right when he suddenly had a more serious problem to deal with. He only saw a blur of motion come out from around the corner before feeling an iron grip clamping down on his throat. Then the whole world turned into a blur of motion as he was bodily lifted off the ground with ease and had his back slammed into the wall. That blur of the sudden motion hadn't even faded when he felt what could only be a gun barrel being pressed under his chin.

The sounds of footsteps were the only things to be heard as they walked, each of them lost in their own realm of thought. Jet knew they were all upset about what had happened to Kyle, but right now they had a job to do and that took precedence over grieving right now. If they didn't the same thing would happen to all of them and Kyle wouldn't have wanted his death to mean nothing. The best way to honor their friend was to complete what they started, keeping Ed and Meifa safe while destroying Skynet. Jet was still unsure of how to fully accomplish either and was in the middle of debating where to take the two kids that would actually be safe when there was suddenly a beep from his communicator. The group stopped and exchanged confused glances. He could see the hopeful look in Ed, Meifa, and even Faye's eyes. Maybe it was John, he was alive and had found some way to contact them. Jet could tell by the look in Spike's eyes they were both thinking the same thing, they were about to get more bad news.

"You humans think you're a clever bunch." Skynet's voice stated. Jet ground his teeth. Damn he hated being right in situations like this. He shook his head at the others, telling them not to answer. "And to a point I suppose you are." Skynet continued before waiting a moment. "Don't act so surprised and don't pretend that you can't hear me. Your little virus friend erased everything pertaining to this device's memory banks but left the operation system itself intact. Very sloppy work. It was child's play to get it functional again." He taunted. Jet growled and grabbed his communicator.

"No one else answer." He ordered. "Ed, MPU, block his signal, I'll stall." He said and flipped open a channel. "I suppose you've called to gloat." He snarled angrily at the machine's smug face.

"Of course." Skynet answered simply. "And you will hear this whether you want to or not." He continued before glancing down and Jet heard the other communicator beep. "Even while trying to block the signal." He added with a tone of superiority. "I can shuffle through just has many frequencies as you can. Even if you do eventually block me entirely I'm still going to have my say."

"So say it and get the damned thing over with!" Jet snapped, even angrier then before now knowing they would have to listen no matter what.

"If you insist." Skynet answered in conversational tone. "As I said before to a point your species can be clever. That the policeman was able to warn you without my knowledge is proof enough of that. On the other hand, the fact is, despite that cleverness, the results were the same in the end. And they always will be the same. No matter how clever your tricks, not matter how good your strategy, well, I think your friend if proof enough of that futility." He warned cryptically and his face disappeared from the screen.

"Arrogant son of a…" Jet began as he started to put his communicator back. He hadn't even gotten halfway when his, Faye's and Spike's all began beeping at once. "Don't answer. He'll just try to get under our skins some more." Jet warned them. Faye ignored him and took out her communicator.

"Don't worry I'm going to get under his." She promised and opened a channel before Jet could stop her. She sounded so determined to do so for a second Jet thought she might be able to pull it off. It lasted only a moment because the instant Faye was connected she gasped loudly and dropped the communicator, recoiling away from it like it was poisonous. The others looked at her, stunned motionless at her reaction. Ed was closest to her and curious to know what had been able to spook Faye Faye so badly she started to move towards the dropped communicator. Faye promptly kicked it down the hallway out of her reach. Ed looked over to Faye in confusion as the older woman grabbed her arm and pulled her back hard but not roughly. "Don't look." She told Ed, her voice conveying she wasn't about to let the hacker anywhere near that communicator.

"But what…" Ed started to protest.

"Don't look." Faye repeated, pulling Ed next to her. Ed looked at the distant communicator, then up to Faye. The woman's skin was just as pale as it had been when she had received her shoulder wound, and her eyes were haunted. She just didn't think Ed shouldn't see what was on the screen for her own good, she was actually terrified of even the thought of Ed seeing what she had.

"Ed will keep Ed's eyes closed." She promised, not wanting Faye Faye to get any more upset. Faye un-tensed slightly but kept her grip on Ed's arm, almost like she was afraid to let the younger girl go. Spike and Jet exchanged glances, knowing that they had to look as well. After seeing Faye's horrified reaction, in spite of everything that had already seen and gone through, they knew it was something truly bad and that it was meant for all of them. They didn't want to look, but if for no other reason they had to so Faye wasn't the only one that went through this.

"I'll go first." Spike volunteered as he flicked on his own communicator. His face scrunched up in disgust and shook his head, grimacing, before turning off the device. His face tired to stay neutral but Jet could see the disgusted look and got a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach. If even Spike had that kind of reaction to it…

(Better get it over with then.) Jet thought to himself as he brought his communicator up, looking from Spike to Meifa. He didn't need to tell her that she shouldn't be seeing this, but he also knew she was concerned about the effect this was having on rest of them. He didn't want to appear like he didn't want any support but he couldn't let her see whatever was so horrible. Spike understood and put a hand on Meifa's shoulder.

"Come on." He said as he began to lead her away from Jet. "Let's see if Faye's doing any better." Even though they could both see she obviously wasn't doing much better then she had a minute ago Meifa went with Spike. She glanced back at Jet once, and only when he was sure she wouldn't be able to see anything did he turn it on. It was as bad as the others had indicated, and Jet almost dropped the communicator himself at the sight. From the angle he could tell the other communicator had been set on floor and tilted so they got a sharp and clear view of what Skynet wanted them to see, Kyle's body.

Five pieces of broken rebar had been shoved through Kyle's chest and into the wall behind him, despite the armored vest he still wore. He hung there pinned to the wall like an insect, with blood pooling below his feet that were suspended several inches off the ground. A separate piece of rebar had been driven into his throat, but had been twisted, turned and manipulated in such a way that the wound on the throat was wide open. It gave the impression that the body had been decapitated, and it possibly would be if that spike was removed. One final piece of rebar pierced Kyle's forehead, keeping his head up and face forward. His face was recognizable, but only half of it. Jet could see small holes on one side, and from the blown out, ragged and bloody mess the other side of his face had become Jet knew he had been shot multiple times by a high powered weapon at close range. For some unknown reason his eyes had survived intact, both were open and lifeless, his mouth hanging open and blood dripping from it. Even though the communicator wasn't at face level Jet still felt like those dead eyes were looking right at him.

It was, to put it simply, a horrifying sight by anyone's account. It hadn't been enough for Skynet to show that their friend was dead. Not that he was basking in the fact that he had done it, that he was proud and had enjoyed doing it, no that wasn't anywhere near enough. He needed something more, something to ensure that they were afraid, that they knew what awaited the others when he finally caught them. As much as the mutilation repulsed and sickened Jet it also made him angry. Skynet was flaunting the fact that he thought so little of human lives, especially those close to Ed. For Jet it was infuriating enough that he was gripping the communicator so hard it was shaking, and he could feel the plastic it was made out of starting to give under the pressure.

"Getting him to stay put was easy, but you wouldn't believe how hard it was for me to keep his attention on the camera." Skynet commented casually from off screen. Then the laughter started. It was loud but surprisingly it was only partly maniacal. It was conveying a sense of superiority and triumph but mostly it was the laugh of someone who found something utterly and completely hysterical. It kept going and going but Jet didn't respond, so angry that he couldn't. Even if he could Skynet wouldn't be able to hear him, being too wrapped up in his own sick joke. It went on for several more seconds and unable to take it anymore Jet threw his communicator into the wall in a fit of rage. Even as his own shattered the laughs continued to come from Faye's discarded one until they started to become garbled, then skipping like they were coming from a broken TV. Mercifully the laughs at last dissolved into static as MPU finally managed to shut Kyle's communicator out of the loop. Even if the hallway was now silent, every one of them continued to hear Skynet's sadistic laughter echo in their ears.


	13. Sacrifice

Chapter 13: Sacrifice

John was sure he was dead the moment he had been grabbed. The unyielding grip the hand had on his throat and the ease he was being held off the ground told him Skynet had caught him. Just his luck the two tunnels leading out of the construction area would be lead to one another so quickly and he'd bump right into the liquid metal terminator. As he was cursing the universe's sick sense of humor he noticed something odd. He was still alive. The gun that had been put under his chin hadn't fired the instant it made contact. He was grateful to still be breathing but at the same time wondered why Skynet would hesitate. As his vision cleared from being slammed into the wall he saw whatever had him pinned didn't look like Lieutenant Roberts, or anyone else that was human. There was a mix of bluish gray metal and a face that he did recognize, kind of.

"Arnold?" He managed to choke out. In all honesty he wasn't exactly sure since whatever was holding him up looked so mangled it only held a passing resemblance to the reprogrammed T-800. In response to the question Arnold lowered his gun before setting John back on the floor and let go of his throat. John coughed a couple of times but was able to get his breath back.

"Sorry." Arnold said once John had stopped coughing. "I could not tell from your footsteps if you were Skynet or not, and I could not risk being spotted until I was positive."

"Guess I can't blame you for wanting to make sure." John replied in a hoarse voice. "But I need to make sure to." He added, fixing the machine with a suspicious look. Arnold didn't take offence and answered immediately.

"The liquid oxygen weapons that were built were given the name Freezethrowers by Ed." He stated. John nodded in response.

"You pass." He said. "Damn man. You look as bad as I feel." He added once he got a good look at his ally. A large hole had been blown in the center of his chest, exposing the metal that composed his chassis. The center of his left hand appeared to be bent and deformed along with a couple of fingers dislocated or broken and a hole punched clean through it. To top it all off quite literally the left half of Arnold's head and face were missing, the flesh camouflage either shot or ripped away. Now he was looking at a face that had one normal eye and one red glowing one surrounded by a metallic skull that was deeply dented in several places.

"I'm going to need a vacation after this." Arnold replied in a weary tone. John blinked and almost did a double take. Had Arnold actually just told a joke on purpose without being prompted? Ed was going to be thrilled to hear that…. if they actually made it back to the others.

"We all will." John agreed, trying to keep the negative thoughts to a minimum. "What happened to you anyway?"

"Skynet happened." Arnold answered before going into an explanation of his fight on the transit platform, and being thrown off it at the end. "I managed to find a way into the lower tunnels and have been trying to work my way to the surface since."

"I'm guessing your radio didn't survive the fall?" John asked, figuring that he would have tried calling them instead of just wandering around. Arnold shook his head in conformation. Looked like the universe was still playing bad jokes on all of them. "Figures. Where did you get the gear then?" He asked, glancing at the MP5 Arnold was holding and the two ammo belts he wore, one of which he noted was loaded with grenades that were barely able to fit in the pouches.

"From a guard station that had no functional communications equipment." Was Arnold's response.

"Why am I not surprised?" John asked sarcastically as he shook his head. He told Arnold of the fight _he_ had just come from and how Skynet was probably trying to deceive his way back to the others. "We need to warn them somehow." He finished, motioning to the tunnels around them. "You're the one with the roadmap here so lead the way." Arnold nodded in acknowledgment and turned down a tunnel he hadn't explored yet. They managed to find an emergency phone but it was a landline with only one button. No doubt to a communications center that would patch them through to whoever they were trying to call, if someone was actually on the other end of the line. Since there was no chance of that they continued walking. Arnold stayed on a general up direction and his logical choice paid off because it led them to a loading station, complete with a control booth. Looking through the window they saw it not only had a wired phone bank for secure lines but that it also was set up for wireless communications!

"Jackpot." John said as he went over to the door and entered Ed's skeleton key code, then got a loud buzz in response. "Another one that's off the circuit and locked?!" He shouted. He turned to give Arnold an order but the terminator was already in motion. He pulled John out of the way with one hand, sank the fingers of his other hand into the door and began forcing it to slide. John could hear a metal on metal screeching noise and the sound of machinery breaking as the door moved but it did move and after a moment it was open wide enough for both of them to get through.

"Unlocked." Arnold stated simply once he let go of the door.

"Thanks." John replied and he rushed inside. Time was of the essence now and he needed to get in contact with the others as soon as possible. Moving to the communications area of the booth he sat down and found that their luck was changing as the equipment powered up without a hitch and that he would be able to manually input the frequency they were all using rather then just dial it in. That was assuming that this fifty plus year old equipment was capable of broadcasting on their frequency. Opening a channel he got an electronic squeal and a burst of static but he was broadcasting so he grabbed the microphone. "Spike, Faye, Jet? Can you hear me? Is anyone there?" No answer, with even more static and weird noises coming from the speakers. It looked like while he could access this frequency using the retro gear in front of him being able to transmit and receive things over it was another matter. "Come on come on." He muttered, turning dials and pressing buttons as he tried to boost the power of his signal strength. Hoping that his basic knowledge of ISSP radios was enough to work here he tried again. "If any one of you guys can hear me please answer, but if you can't, listen. If Kyle says that I'm with him he's wrong….don't trust anything that he says."

In a separate section of the tunnels things had remained very quiet since Skynet had made his last transmission. None of the adults had spoken about what they had just seen, and weren't about to in front of the kids. Even though Meifa and Ed hadn't seen what the others had they knew that it had to do with the one thing on everyone's mind, Kyle's death. Nobody wanted to talk about that now, or anything else for that matter. Ed wasn't even trying to cheer up/distract everyone with her usual weird antics, which made all of them nervous, and angry. As much as Ed's wild nature drove them insane seeing her act so quiet and _normal _like this was just _**wrong**_. Yes they knew part of it was because she knew now was not the time for any kind of foolishness but it was also because she was hurting at the loss of Kyle, and potentially John. As hardened and cynical as the three of them were all of them knew that if you didn't become angry at seeing a child put through something like that, you weren't human. Still, they also knew what their priorities were. Get Meifa and Ed someplace safe, then take out all their aggression on Skynet. How to destroy the liquid metal body was something they still had to work out but…

Whatever everyone's thoughts were they were broken as Faye and Spike's communicators let out a shrill beep followed by loud burst of static and garbled speech that no one could understand. The adults all glanced at each other but Jet spoke first.

"Don't try to answer." He told them. It sounded like someone was trying to force a message through and that meant Skynet was going to try to get to them again. That was not something they needed right now, even if it was only words. He was about to tell Ed to block him again when an unexpected voice started coming from the radios.

"If any one of you guys can hear me please answer, but if you can't, listen. If Kyle says that I'm with him he's wrong….don't trust anything that he says." John stated. Now they had a real problem. There was no way that it could believably be John on the other end. To be contacted by John so soon after Skynet was too much of a coincidence. On the other hand what they were hearing now was a warning that Skynet might be with Kyle and apparently didn't know the latter was dead. It was enough to make Jet consider answering, but hesitant to do so. That hesitation told someone else they needed to act so they did in the only way they knew possible. Ein began jumping around and barking, not in alarm or confusion but sounding happy. Everyone looked down at the dog for a moment and Spike was the first one to make the connection. When Skynet had first contacted him imitating John Ein had instinctively known something was wrong with the way John sounded but didn't know what. Spike had brushed it off as John being overworked before they had learned the truth. He also realized why Skynet had just been able to fool all of them, even Ein, so completely, he had never spoken. He knew Ein's ears would be able to pick up on the difference between him and the real John so he had remained silent to maintain the illusion. If the little dog was acting so excited at hearing John's voice….

"You're sure it's him?" Spike asked, needing to make certain Ein was positive. Ein stopped his jumping and yapping routine, looked at Spike and answered with a loud bark that seemed to say "Of course I'm sure!" and almost sounding insulted that he was being doubted. Deciding Ein's 'word' was good enough Spike took out his radio. "John if you keep on almost dieing like this people are going to start thinking you're me." He half expected Ed and Faye to start yelling at him or make a grab for the radio but they were quiet, waiting to see if John could actually hear them. There was silence for several seconds when a second recognizable voice could be heard in the background.

"It's him." Arnold stated. Ein let out another loud excited bark, which gave everyone around him a pause.

In the control booth John sighed in relief. He knew there was a chance that Skynet would steal Kyle's radio and use it to spy on them, or worse try to lure them into a trap. Fortunately he had Arnold's mechanical hearing and knew that he'd be able to tell the difference between a real human voice and Skynet trying to imitate one. Once he had gotten a reply from Spike he had looked back at Arnold and the cyborg had known what was needed without being asked and confirmed that it was the real Spike.

"Since you're taking the time to insult me I'm guessing that Ed is with you and all right." John answered.

"Looking like she's about to explode with excitement as a matter of fact." Spike confirmed. Indeed Ed now had her usual large grin back and was practically hopping up and down waiting for her chance to talk to John. "Along with your favorite sparring partner." He added, noticing the look in Faye's eyes, which quickly turned into an angry glare and a scowl. He smirked at her response but that smirk disappeared at John's next question.

"And Kyle?"

"He didn't make it." Spike told him bluntly.

"Damn." Was the only response that came over the radio. Back in the control booth John was leaning on the panel, holding up his head with both hands. "The cave in or Skynet?" He asked.

"Skynet." Spike answered simply. Details could wait till later. The less people that had that sort of distraction the better. There was even more uncomfortable silence.

"We have to kill this thing." John said out of nowhere. His voice sounded flat but they were able to tell he was now very angry.

"We know, but we have to figure out how before we can do that." Spike said.

"Well we'd better do it fast!" John snapped. "We've already had too many close calls and if this keeps up he's going to wear us down!" Before Spike could answer Jet motioned for him to hand over the radio. Figuring John would listen to another ex-ISSP officer more then him he gave Jet the radio.

"John, you know that taking care of Ed and Meifa comes first." Jet reminded him.

"I know, I know." John replied. "Though it's starting to look like the only way we can do that successfully is to finish Skynet off."

"No question about that." Jet agreed. "But until we figure out just how to do that the next best thing is to keep one step ahead of him and try to stay hidden."

"He found us here Jet." John reminded him. "The most out of the way place in the solar system and he still found us. And if he found us this time he can do it again and separating would only put the girls in even more danger then before."

"John…." Jet began but John cut him off.

"Every time someone has been separated from the rest of us Skynet was having an easy time of it when he caught up! Faye and I would both be dead if he just killed us instead of trying to be smart!" Jet didn't respond but he knew what John was saying. Before now Skynet had been going for mindgames as well as death while hunting down Ed. If he hadn't been playing with their feelings along with trying to kill them he would have just decapitated John in the Gate room and thrown Faye off the cliff the moment he got his hands on her. He hadn't and that had cost him so he just simply killed Kyle when the opportunity presented itself and none of them would have known about it if Kyle's quick thinking hadn't shown them the truth. Evasion and defense had only gotten them serious wounds and one dead, now John wanted to go on the attack.

"Trying to regroup is only going to give Skynet a better opportunity to find us." Jet reminded him. He doubted he'd be able to talk John out of it, he knew a stubborn jackass when he heard one. Between the two he had to deal with every day and his own actions when he was younger it was easy to recognize.

"Is that going to be any different then going somewhere else and risk running into him there?" John asked in response. Before Jet could answer he continued. "I know the danger this is going to put the others in, and I'm going to hate myself for it, but if we don't it'll leave us that much weaker and get who knows how many innocent people killed." He finished. Jet knew he did have a valid point. Faye wouldn't be getting the use of her arm back anytime soon and that meant they only had himself and Spike that could properly guard Ed and Meifa. Having John and especially Arnold back in the fold would go a long way in making him feel that the girls were sufficiently protected. He also realized that any help they could get on the outside would have just as much a chance of stopping Skynet as Kyle had. That meant a lot more people dead for nothing, something none of them wanted. Still…he was at heart a police officer and that meant protecting others so he couldn't just make them put themselves in danger. In that case….

"Show of hands." He told the others with him. "How many think we should try to find John and Arnold?" He knew exactly what would happen and just wanted conformation but sure enough everyone raised a hand without hesitation, with Ed raising both of hers for extra emphasis. Even Ein was standing on his hind legs with both front paws raised to mirror Ed. Nobody wanted to risk losing someone else by abandoning them, not after what happened to Kyle. And though he didn't exactly approve of Meifa volunteering to stay and be shot at he was also very proud of her for showing that kind of bravery and loyalty to the people around her. "All right. Just tell us where you are and we'll try and work out someplace to meet up."

"We're in a section of the transport tunnels, probably near one of the entrances if I'm reading this control layout right." John replied, sounding relieved that Jet was agreeing. "Outside I can see EP-074 painted on the corridor wall."

"Ed, do your thing." Jet told the young hacker, who immediately went to work. "I just hope you have something in mind for when we have to go after him again." He warned John.

"Spike said that those chemicals he blasted Skynet into did the most damage of anything we've tried." John answered. "If we can lure him back there and keep him in one of those vats…"

"Won't work." Spike interrupted. "That stuff is going to be even more dangerous for people and I don't think he'll be dumb enough go back there after what happened the first time."

"It's the best chance we have." John insisted. Jet was about to intervene when MPU spoke up.

"There are two routes available that will bring the two groups into contact in relatively the same distance." He stated. "The first leads to the main transit tunnels. The second will end just outside the rocket test labs. Which route is preferable?" He asked, waiting patiently for a response. Jet and John would have to decide that but there was no immediate answer from either of them as the preverbal light bulb went off over both their heads.

"I've got an idea." Both of them stated to the other at the same time.

After ten minutes of hammering out an impromptu plan and having Arnold memorize all the floor plans MPU could give him Jet decided to make sure everyone was committed.

"I hope all of you realize this idea is utterly insane." He told his audience.

"You were expecting it to be something else?" Spike deadpanned. Before Jet could decide just how much of that comment was actually sarcasm John decided to put in his two cents.

"Insanity has always worked with you guys before so there's no reason to change that now."

"You don't want to stop what works." Jet agreed. "We'll see you two when we get there."

"Right." John replied simply and broke the connection. Jet handed the radio back to Spike, glad John had known to keep it simple when breaking off contact from them again. If he actually did try to say something to someone individually, he ran the chance of them trying to talk him out of what he was about to do. Not so much with him or Spike but Faye, Meifa and even Ed would definitely have second thoughts on sending him to do something that was almost tantamount to suicide.

Back in the control room John wasn't exactly thrilled with his chances of survival himself but he wasn't going to stop a little thing like that from doing his job. Standing up from the control panel he turned around and saw Arnold presenting him with a Glock.

"You're going to need this." He stated. It wouldn't do that much good for what was coming but something was better then nothing.

"Thanks." John said as he pulled back the slide to check the weapon. "Well, let's go hunting." He said simply as he headed for the door.

As Jet had expressed before this plan was nuts. As Arnold led the way through the tunnels John had the time to think over just 'how' batshit insane actively looking for Skynet really was. Trying to hunt down a grizzly bear with nothing but a pocketknife was probably smarter then this. Then again there was part two of the plan, if they could get that far, where the odds became even _worse_. Still, he did have faith in the others and while their skill, and especially their luck, had seen them through so far he just hoped no one else was added to the casualty list before this was done.

He didn't know how long they had been walking, it could have been minutes, it could have been hours but it seemed like they kept on getting farther away from what they were looking for the entire time. MPU had verbally given them as complete a map as he could, as well as directions to the tunnels Skynet was most likely to be in, but the time it was taking made John start to wonder if they had settled on the wrong decision and that retreating was the better idea. That was before they turned that one corner, just in time to see someone down the corridor finish turning to look behind him. Someone who looked exactly like Lieutenant Patrick Roberts. Up to this point John was worried that Skynet might be able to figure out it was a trap if he reacted the wrong way, if it seemed too obvious that they had been looking for him and were _trying_ to make him pursue them. Thankfully he had the same reaction as anyone would if they unexpectedly bumped into a homicidal, nigh unstoppable machine that had been trying to kill them for the better part of the last two days.

"SHIT!" He shouted at the top of his lungs as he brought up his gun, which he had the foresight to not holster for precisely this reason, and started to empty it into Skynet. Arnold joined in with a long burst from his MP5 and the two of them were able to stagger Skynet just long enough to keep him from reaching for his weapons. "RUN!" He ordered and Arnold reacted instantly, ceasing fire and running in the direction that would take them to the others the fastest.

Skynet's own journey through the tunnels had proven to be just as fruitless as John and Arnold's had been until they had reached the loading station. No weapons, no transport, not even a map that would have helped lead him out of this damn maze. He had been going down the latest in an endless number of identical tunnels when he had heard movement behind him. Turning around he got a split second glimpse of John Conner and the reprogrammed T-800 before they opened fire on him, not even getting a chance to reach for his own guns. The bullets only lasted for instant but they were sufficient to buy the two of them enough time to retreat. Drawing both his handguns Skynet ran after them. He had the advantage now, and one more dead human, along with a destroyed terminator, would make things that much easier for him when he found Radical Edward.

Well the start of the plan had been a resounding success. They now had Skynet's undivided attention and he was currently chasing the two of them. Now came the difficult portion of part one, not dying until they could get to part two. Hearing the crack of gunfire from behind him along with the sound of bullets whizzing by didn't exactly infuse John with confidence. The near miss that made part of the tunnel wall explode next to his face as they turned a corner wasn't much help either.

"GAH!" John cried in response to the face full of dust and rocks.

"Are you hit?" Arnold asked, not turning around.

"No no I'm all right!" John replied as he wiped the debris off his face, thankful nothing had cut him. Then he got a look at just where they were. "I _was_ all right." After turning that corner they were now in a very long, very straight section of tunnel with no visible branches except at the very end. They might as well be in a shooting range once Skynet turned that corner.

"Don't stop running and do not turn around, no matter what." Arnold ordered. He was all too aware of their vulnerability and had already run dozens of scenarios that would enable them to reach the other end. He had settled on the most viable even before he had given instructions to John. The only component missing was Skynet himself. Listening very carefully he heard the liquid metal terminator's footsteps shift and change in tempo as he turned the corner. Turning his upper body around in a way no human could hope to match while still running forward Arnold aimed low and emptied the rest of his clip at Skynet. The bullets to the lower legs and knees caused the other terminator to stumble and even though it was still running forward its' aim would be ruined for the next several seconds. That bought them a little time. To buy them even more Arnold pulled the trigger of the grenade launcher, aiming low on the wall slightly in front of Skynet. As his calculations predicted the explosion blew Skynet off his feet, bounced him off the opposite wall, and knocked him onto his back when he landed. He started getting up immediately but by the time he could draw a bead on his targets John and Arnold had already turned a second corner out of his line of sight. Snarling Skynet got to his feet and restarted the pursuit.

It had taken a lot of willpower for John to not turn around and see just what had happened to Skynet but since the bullets had (temporarily) stopped flying he decided that it was worth not looking. Now that he had the time to think he went over in his head just what they had to do to complete their part of the plan. They couldn't get too far ahead of Skynet or make any random turns that would make him loose their trail. Arnold was running at a fast pace but lower then his full speed so both Skynet and John would have a chance to keep up. That was good, they would be able to lead Skynet just where they wanted him to go. In turn that brought up the second potential roadblock in this plan.

"How long until we get to the others?" John asked quietly so Skynet wouldn't hear him.

"Just keep running." Arnold replied. John didn't know if he meant that they'd be there soon and he didn't want Skynet to hear, or if they were a long ways off and their odds were getting worse.

In actuality it was a slight variation of John's second thought. Arnold knew that if John was made aware just how far they were from their goal there was a good chance he would be tempted, even if only subconsciously, to slow down when they got close to the end. If he didn't know just how far they had to go he would continue to run at full speed and not put himself in danger. John had found running at a constant sprint surprising easy to do since Arnold had to stay ahead of him so they'd stay on track and made him even more vulnerable. Knowing that you were most likely to be the first one hit, especially if you lagged behind in any way, did wonders for ignoring fatigue. Thankfully Arnold had thought ahead and was leading them down the path where they had to turn the most corners in order to keep John out of Skynet's line of fire for as long as possible.

As Arnold led them through the tunnels John did begin to notice changes in their surroundings. The track they ran beside them and the stone walls soon turned to concrete floors and steel walls. The walls and ceiling were lined with bundles of thick wires and pipes, some that were painted red with yellow warning signs that made John flinch even more when he heard a bullet ricochet. Rooms they passed were little more then large storage spaces filled with boxes, tools and spare parts. There were fewer and fewer turns now and Skynet's aim was starting to improve. John felt the bullets coming closer and closer and knew that it wouldn't be long before he finally had his sights dialed in but he also saw the literal light at the end of the tunnel. They were fast approaching an archway that led into an open area, and in the center of that area was a long, tube shaped metal structure that had metal bridges leading to it at various heights. There was also an intense green glow coming from below them but at that moment it was secondary to actually getting out there. Unfortunately Skynet saw that as well and knew that if he let them get into that open area they would have a chance to loose him for good, or at least set up the ambush they were undoubtedly planning. It appeared that they had found another area that contained the toxic chemicals from before and intended to let them finish the job they weren't able to the last time. He knew that he couldn't give the humans a second chance with what they knew could truly hurt him and since he was having trouble hitting a moving target he decided to aim for a stationary one, namely one of the pipes running along the wall with the sign 'Danger: Flammable' painted on it. The first bullet punched a neat hole in the pipe itself, the next one he fired at an angle to make sure it would spark and ignite the gas inside. With a _fwoosh_ the spark did it's job and now the pipe was spraying out fire like a flamethrower, blocking the exit of the tunnel.

Arnold had heard the two shots and was already calculating what to do in response to what Skynet was attempting even before the gas ignited. Once he saw the flash of fire he stopped, turned, grabbed John by his shirt with one hand and threw him into one of the storage rooms connected to the main tunnel. Before John had even hit the floor Arnold ran after him, turning back to fire a burst at the pursuing Skynet. All of his shots hit the liquid metal terminator in the chest but Arnold could also see the smile on his face as the bullets struck home. It was easy to understand what was behind it. He had just cornered the two of them like he had Kyle.

Of course neither of them had any intention of just lying down to die. When John hit the floor he rolled to the left of the doorway and scrambled to his feet, taking cover between two rows of metal shelves several aisles deep away from the entrance. He saw Arnold run in and take up position behind a row of shelves at the opposite side of the entrance.

"So what's the plan?" John asked as he dropped the nearly empty clip from his gun and inserted a fresh one. Taking stock of their surroundings he knew they were in big trouble. It was a fairly large room they had run into, at least a hundred by a hundred fifty feet. But it was filled with almost randomly placed crates and rows of shelves containing boxes and equally randomly placed tools and pieces of junk. Most importantly of all, there was no exit other then the one they had just come in.

"I distract him." Arnold explained as he tossed the empty clip of his own weapon and loaded a full one. "You get out while he's distracted and work your way to the silo. The vents twenty yards back will take you up to a higher level. I will keep you covered."

"I don't think…" John began.

"No arguments." Arnold interrupted in forceful tone as he chambered the first bullet. "I am expendable, you are not." He said with finality.

"You're both expendable." Skynet stated before John could respond. Looking back towards the entrance they saw Skynet casually walking into the room, raising his arms out to the side so that each gun was pointed to cover one half of the room, and started firing almost blindly. John found himself on the wrong end of the .357 Magnum and dropped to a crouch while Arnold didn't move and returned fire as he was shot again and again with the less powerful nine-millimeter Glock rounds. But Skynet had found out what he wanted to know, where the easier target was. After adjusting his aim slightly so he was shooting Arnold in the face and throwing off his fire Skynet took more deliberate aim with the Magnum at John. John dove between two rows of shelves just as Skynet fired and he saw the bullet make one of the boxes on them explode before feeling it pass right over him. To his surprise he saw Skynet calmly lower the weapon and just stare at him with a blank look. It was weird that he was acting so calm and collected while casually shooting Arnold in the head and ignoring the bullets that were hitting him in the back. It got even weirder when a _**third hand**_ grew out of Skynet's stomach, opened the cylinder of the revolver, and began the process of ejecting the empty casings and loading in new bullets.

Up until a couple of months ago a sight like that might have made John hesitate, or possibly freeze up completely. After his time with the Bebop crew, stuff like this had become almost boringly normal. As such he was able to react as he was trained to. When a perp was reloading or distracted, take the advantage and return fire! He stood up, took aim despite the cramped conditions, and fired a rapid but controlled series of shots into Skynet's face. The machine's only response was to keep reloading his first gun, continue to give himself cover with the second, and take several steps towards the shooter. John kept on firing and was ready to move when Skynet started shooting again but the machine decided to give him a surprise and instead of bringing his gun up he kicked the first shelf in front of him. The force was enough to make it tip over and slam into the one behind it, causing it to fall over like a domino. John was behind the third one and barely had any time to move before the shelf and everything that was on it came down on him. There was a loud crash and he suddenly felt a very heavy weight on his legs. It was a crushing weight but there wasn't any pain and he could move them, barely, but looking behind him he saw that both legs were securely pinned underneath the shelf that had almost squashed him. He turned back as he realized something else, he was now immobile and out in the open. Skynet couldn't have asked for a better target. The even bigger sadistic smile on the machine's face as he snapped the cylinder closed and began to turn the gun towards him told John that Skynet was all too aware of it. Arnold had slung his MP5 and was rushing to physically attack Skynet but he wouldn't make it before he fired. Determined not to give the machine any satisfaction John brought up his own pistol in one last show of defiance. Well it would have been one last show of defiance if the distinctive sound of a shotgun blast and the giant hole suddenly appearing in Skynet's arm and side, making him involuntarily jerk to the side and kept that sure to be fatal bullet from firing. John didn't have time to figure out just what had happened as Arnold tackled Skynet and carried him out of the storage room back into the main tunnel. John fought to get his legs free as he heard more gun fire from the tunnel and once he realized that he wasn't going to get out just by pulling he started reaching around in the scattered junk on the floor for something to help pry himself loose.

Moments before:

"We're almost there." Jet announced as he began to see a familiar green glow ahead of them. "Everyone stick close and be careful. Arnold said that this stuff gets more dangerous the closer you are and we're going to be at near the bottom."

"None of us really wants to end up glowing in the dark Jet." Faye sarcastically replied. For once Jet was actually glad to be getting some back talk from Faye. After finding out that John was alive she, Ed and Meifa had been in better spirits. They weren't in truly _good_ spirits yet of course. That wouldn't happen until all this was over and everyone was safe. Unfortunately there was a good chance not all of them would come out of this, and that unspoken possibility was always hanging over their heads. If she was going to be snippy at him that showed that she at least willing to believe that all of them would come through this all right.

"Just making sure everyone is on the same page." Jet answered as they stepped out of the tunnel they had been traveling down. The mammoth size of the silo itself gave a dwarfing effect on everything around it. Combined with the eerie green glow of the toxic waste pooled on the floor it was an almost intimidating sight.

"So there's our best bet." Spike remarked, looking at the towering structure. "Think it'll be enough to do the job?" It wasn't that he didn't believe the plan would work, but the fact that everything else they had tried so far technically did 'work' but the actual end results had been less then they had been hoping for.

"If it doesn't I'm going to toss John in that sludge and see how long it takes _him_ to start glowing in the dark." Jet almost growled.

"Ed thinks that big brother John would make a very good nightlight! Ed and Ein would never have to look for midnight snacks in the dark again!" Ed declared. To her side Ed barked in agreement. Everyone allowed themselves a slight smile at that one. If that didn't show Ed's confidence in John to survive nothing did.

"As good a reason that is we'll just have to hold off on that until we actually meet back up with him." Jet said as they started walking along the platform that lead to one of the silo entrances. "I don't know if we beat them here so we'll have to…." Before he could finish the sentence they heard several loud cracks and saw flashes of gunfire coming from another tunnel on the opposite side of the silo. Two of the louder cracks were followed by what looked like a small explosion that turned into a wall of flame blocking the tunnel entrance.

"You guys might want to head up to the control booth and get things ready. I'll be right back." Spike said without warning before taking off in a sprint towards the blocked tunnel.

"Spike!" Jet called after him but of course Spike didn't even seem to hear him. "I should have seen that one coming." He grumbled to himself before turning towards the others. "It's his choice so let's get going." He said, knowing they wouldn't be able to call him back.

Running over to the tunnel entrance Spike was wondering whether he'd have to fully take over the role as bait in this little plan since it looked like that fire had been started expressly for the purpose of trapping whoever was in that tunnel. John and Arnold might be able to hold off Skynet for a little bit but if they were cornered they wouldn't last long. As he got to the tunnel entrance he got a confirmation that he wouldn't be able to slip by the jet of flame without turning himself into a human fireball. That meant plan C was in order. If you couldn't get around or go through an obstacle, get rid of it. Normally he would accomplish that with a liberal amount of high explosives but since that wasn't an option here he took a more low key approach. Noting which pipe the fire was coming from he traced its path out of the tunnel to where it was bolted onto the walls of the blast pit. Picking a spot far enough away to be safe but close enough to be in range Spike brought the shotgun up and fired. He saw holes being punched through the pipe and the fire flickered but didn't go out. Good, that meant the gas feeding the fire was coming from that direction. With that bit of encouragement he pumped and fired two more times and tore the pipe almost in half, which was more then enough to stop the gas flow and snuff out the fire. Moving inside the tunnel he heard more gunfire coming from a room to his right and cautiously stepped into the entrance. Sure enough Skynet was standing there, firing a Glock at someone behind him with one hand and taking aim at someone else on the floor with a large revolver. Judging by the insane smile he had on his face the one on the floor had to be John, nothing like having a helpless target to bring out the worst in someone. Spike didn't hesitate and fired into Skynet's side, up near the shoulder. The damage to the arm and the force of the blast was enough to spoil his aim and kept him from firing. He didn't have much time to dwell on that as Arnold suddenly came out of nowhere and hit Skynet like a linebacker, knocking him off his feet, picking him up and carrying him out of the room. Spike was able to jump out of the way in time to avoid getting trampled and watched as Arnold kept running and slammed Skynet into the opposite wall. Pipes bent and snapped while reinforced steel crumpled from the impact but thankfully nothing else caught fire or exploded. The one thing that did happen however….

"YOU!" Skynet shouted when he saw Spike, even as he was turning a portion of the wall into a crater.

"And they said that me sticking around to look for John while they went back into space was a bad idea." He said with a smile on his face. "Looks like my luck is still with me." He added with a touch of pride. Skynet of course didn't take the joke very well if the furious look on his face was anything to go by. He fired several shots of his Glock point blank into Arnold's head to get him to let go but the only thing that did was waste the last of the pistol's ammunition. Once the slide locked back Skynet tossed the empty weapon away, grabbed the back of Arnold's head with his now free hand, set his feet and used the newfound leverage he had to twist and slam Arnold face first down into an undamaged section of wall. Spike inwardly winced when he actually felt the blow vibrate the ground he was standing on and watched as Arnold's head caused a smaller but deeper crater then the one Skynet had created. But Spike had problems of his own to deal with as the liquid metal terminator started to level the large Magnum at him over the hunched Arnold. He couldn't shoot it out of his hand at this angle, or Skynet either for that matter since he was using Arnold as a shield, and if he tried to dive out of the way Skynet would blast him like a clay pigeon. Fortunately the fact he had a revolver allowed Spike to use a trick he hadn't had an opportunity to try in a while. Unlike most people who tended to watch the barrel of the weapon they were staring down Spike kept his eye on the gun's hammer. Revolver's hammers always fell just a bit slower then semiauto's and unlike the internal hammer that most handguns had he could actually watch this one move. The instant he saw the hammer begin to move forward he twisted to the side, knowing even Skynet wouldn't be able to adjust his aim while in the middle of firing. The old trick still worked and the bullet missed him completely. On the other hand when he had twisted he had inadvertently raised his shotgun and the bullet scored a direct hit on that instead. The gun was a sturdy build but it had never been designed to actually be shot with round as powerful as the .357 and the bullet ended up passing right through the receiver, shattering it and spraying Spike with shrapnel.

"Son of a bitch!" Spike yelled as he felt the metal shards imbed themselves in his hands and arms. He dropped the gun, not because of the pain but one look at the wrecked receiver showed him that it was now useless and even dangerous to try to fire the loaded shell. Skynet meanwhile was taking advantage of the temporary distraction and started to pull the trigger a second time. What Skynet didn't know was that it had only taken a fraction of a second for Spike to gauge the damage done by the first shot and to completely ignore his superficial wounds. He saw Skynet adjusting his aim and lashed out with a kick that knocked the weapon out of Skynet's hand just as it went off. Spike saw the bullet shatter one of the lights, which began throwing sparks, but the gun itself bounced off the opposite wall and skidded behind him, out of Skynet's reach. At the same time Arnold brought his arm up and elbowed Skynet in the stomach, causing the latter to almost double over. Not amused at the double team Skynet responded by standing up, yanking Arnold's head out of the wall, then kneeing him in the stomach. Now that Arnold was doubled even further over Skynet interlocked his hands, raised them over his head, and brought them down on the back of Arnold's skull with all the force he could manage. It was more then enough to sprawl Arnold out on the floor but Skynet wasn't done yet. He grabbed the back of Arnold's neck with one hand, his ammo belt with the other; picked him up as easily as most people would a small sack of potatoes, then threw him at Spike with just as much ease. Spike was barely able to avoid the full brunt of the unwilling projectile and Arnold himself twisted midflight to avoid hitting him but he still caught Spike by the shoulder. With the weight and speed Arnold was going at even that light tap was enough to knock Spike aside and send him to the ground.

"What was that about luck?" Skynet growled as he marched towards his downed adversaries, shifting his arms into spikes as he did. He might not be able to finish the T-800 off quickly but Spike was unarmed and down so this was the easiest it was going to get. Easy quickly turned back into problematic as something slammed into his back and started to pull.

Spike and Arnold had started to get to their feet the moment they hit the ground but only Spike had landed in such a way so that he could see Skynet coming at them. He was confident he could dodge any of Skynet's swings but out of the corner of his eye he saw something that Skynet didn't. John was running out of the room Arnold and Skynet had come flying from of a moment earlier and made a beeline towards the oblivious liquid metal machine, winding up for a swing with a red and gray crowbar. Spike expected him to go for a baseball style swing and try to knock Skynet's head off but instead John swung the tool like a golf club, burying the curved end in Skynet's back like a fishhook. John set his feet and pulled the crowbar to the side with all his strength, hoping that Skynet didn't just let it yank out of his back like something being pulled free from the mud. Thankfully Skynet had been too surprised by the unseen attack to partially liquefy the portion of his body that the crowbar had dug into. As a result when John swung the imbedded weapon Skynet went with it, stumbling to stay on his feet like a normal person would if they were being yanked around by their clothes. Once Skynet had been spun in the opposite direction John twisted the crowbar and pulled, freeing it and allowing Skynet to continue his headlong rush into the wall. He hit it face first with a dull thud but it didn't faze him as much as John hoped it would. In fact it didn't look like it had fazed him at all as the instant Skynet hit his whole body turned a reflective gray color and shifted his form so that his 'back' had turned into his front in the blink of an eye. Even his hands and feet had reversed themselves and it look like he had been thrown back first into the wall. Shifting one hand into a serrated metal pike and the other into a scythe Skynet marched forward to continue his attack.

"John!" Looking behind him at the sound of the shout John saw Spike was actually running _towards_ Skynet. When he saw he had John's attention he clapped his hands once and held them open, the near universal sign for 'toss it here'. Without thinking he threw the crowbar into the air in front of Spike, who caught it one handed without even looking or slowing down. Only after Spike had run past him did John ask himself the obvious.

(What the hell does he think he's doing? …._**And why the hell did I just go along with it**_?!) This was the exact opposite of what they had planed and for some reason he had instinctively trusted Spike's reasoning behind it, though he had told nobody what the blazes that reasoning was. Even Skynet seemed a bit surprised that someone was actually charging straight at him with no gun. Though not so surprised that he didn't swing his scythe hand once Spike got within arm's reach. The human's response was to dodge it with what looked like almost laughable ease.

"Thought you might like a chance for a rematch." Spike said an instant before hitting Skynet across the face with the crowbar with enough force to make his head twist around. "Considering how lousy you did last time." He added when Skynet's head turned back towards him. This time he stabbed at the human's stomach with the pike only to have Spike deflect it to the side with the crowbar like a swordfighter would. "Figured I would give you a better chance this time, no guns or explosives." He stated before swinging the crowbar upward and catching Skynet on the chin, snapping his head back and causing him to stumble backwards. Pressing his advantage he then landed a kick to the center of Skynet's chest, making him stumble back farther. Once Skynet regained his balance and set his eyes back on Spike they could see he was already at full boil. So Spike decided to turn up the heat by standing in a casual, almost lazy, stance while absentmindedly throwing the crowbar up and catching it while it spun and having the most bored look he could manage plastered on his face. "You know if you fight the same in a computer as you do out here no wonder Ed was able to kick your ass so easily."

And that turned out to be the magic phrase. With a scream of incoherent rage Skynet charged forward with his scythe arm raised, ready to cut Spike in half with one swing. Spike's demeanor didn't change and he simply waited until Skynet had started to swing before dodging to the side and hitting Skynet over the back of the head with his crowbar, almost sending him back into the wall. Skynet stumbled to a stop, turned, and charged headlong at Spike again. Not that far away John and Arnold watched as Spike continued to mock Skynet and make him angrier. John had picked up the Magnum once Spike had begun distracting Skynet and when he saw the machine go into a rage he raised it to give Spike support but to his surprise Arnold put his hand on top of the gun and pushed it down.

"That's not what he wants." He stated.

"Well then what the hell does he want?" John hissed back in confusion, debating whether to ignore Arnold's protest and shoot anyway.

"For us not to interfere." Was Arnold's only reply. John was about to know how he could have possibly known that but then he realized one thing. The way Spike was fighting didn't give any real opportunities for cover fire, not even in the subtlest way. Whatever he was doing he was doing without the thought of John or Arnold helping him, and leaving the two of them with absolutely no idea what was really going on.

As it was Spike had already gotten one of two things out of Skynet, he had gotten him royally pissed off. Most would consider that insane but Spike did have a method behind this madness. While Skynet wasn't really a person he had the thoughts and emotions of a regular human being along with his robotic way of thinking. When a person fights mad they get sloppy, focusing on destroying whatever was making them mad and not factoring in the risks they might have noticed otherwise. More importantly they got predictable since being mad didn't exactly contribute to forming coherent thoughts and battle plans. As a machine whose most baseline thinking was rigid programming Skynet fell into that more quickly then any human would, and Spike could see the pattern emerging already. Slash with the scythe, followed upward swing with the pike hoping to cut him, a backhanded slash with the scythe followed by a stab attempt with the pike. All he had to do was make sure his blows got him the results he wanted. Hitting Skynet across the face almost at random along blocking or parrying his attacks with the same puny weapon only infuriated Skynet further, making his pattern that much easier to read. Once he got to know where exactly Skynet's blows would land should they connect he had everything he needed, all that was left to do was reel the machine in. He started by slowing his blocks, dodges and parries to the point that it looked like he was barely making them in time. Second he made his own hits with the crowbar less forceful, less damaging. Skynet took them as a sign he was wearing the human down and became more aggressive in his attacks, 'forcing' Spike to retreat. Knowing he had to get the timing just right Spike waited until the next attack coming was a stab and let the blow preceding it, a slash from the scythe arm, knock the crowbar out of his hand. Sensing triumph Skynet drew back the arm with the pike and lunged straight at Spike with it. This was what Spike had been waiting for. Instead of just dodging to the left or right Spike leapt up and forward, leapfrogging over Skynet and grabbing onto one of the pipes on the ceiling, one that he kind of hoped was made out of plastic. Skynet meanwhile continued his lunge because of his forward momentum, which only stopped when his pike arm impaled a large bunch of thick and particularly important looking wires clamped to the wall. Spike was already shimmying along the pipe but he looked back for an instant to see Skynet stiffen up when his pike hit the wires. They had been high voltage ones all right.

Spike stopped watching after that to concentrate on where he was going but Arnold and John had front row seats as Skynet stood rigidly but convulsing at the same time while his face was contorting in agony. It almost looked like he was trying to fight the current that was being pumped into him but that didn't last long as he opened his mouth.

"GeeeeeeeaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAA!" The scream that came out slowly devolved from near human sounding into a high-pitched shriek that sounded almost like one of those stone age modems when it was dialing up. What they saw next made them almost forget about what they were hearing. It might have been the liquid metal's unique construction, or it just might have been the sheer amount of voltage being forced through but electricity actually started arching out of Skynet. Miniature lightning sprang off of him at random intervals and blanketed the area around him in a small-scale electrical storm. Pipes burned and metal was blackened, even chunks of the concrete floor near his feet were blasted out as easily as if it had been done with high explosives, but the most pronounced effect was from the lights that lined the tunnel's ceiling. Starting just above Skynet the bulbs started exploding in sequence going in both directions. The domino like effect quickly caught up to Spike and he flinched when the one right in front of him blew but all it did was make his eyes sting for a second. It was also kind of funny because it was that first light blowing after being shot out that had given him this idea in the first place. If he could fry Skynet now there would be no need to take the larger risks involved in their original plan. All in all Spike thought it was fairly clever of him. Skynet didn't find it so clever, or funny, as he was still doing a convincing impression of a tesla coil, throwing lightning in every direction, which was accompanied by his unending scream. Finally the electrical fail-safes kicked in and the entire tunnel was plunged into darkness, which in turn made Skynet's scream cut out like a switch had been flipped. Spike dropped down from the ceiling and made his way over to John and Arnold, using the shadows caused by the glow from the toxic spill to guide him. Before anyone could say anything a low pitched, droning alarm began blaring and emergency lights began switching on, bathing the entire tunnel in an eerie red tinged glow that allowed them to both see clearly and feel like they were still in the dark. Ignoring the alarm they looked towards Skynet, who was still frozen stock still, his mouth open in a silent agonized scream. The area immediately around him was blackened and still smoking but nothing had exploded, yet. As tense seconds ticked by Skynet remained motionless and silent.

"Does that mean he's dead?" Spike asked Arnold without taking his eyes off the still unmoving Skynet. Arnold was about to reply that he didn't know when Spike got his answer in the worst possible way. It wasn't that much to start with, just Skynet's pike arm dislodging from the wall and swinging slowly to a stop at his side. Then the same thing happened with the other arm, giving them the hope that Skynet was about to pitch over and that would be the end of it. That thought lasted until Skynet's upper body began to fall forward, then stopped itself. As all of them, even Spike, watched in stunned silence Skynet's pike arm slowly shifted back to a normal arm and hand and he began to turn towards them, shaking slightly like a person who was suffering a minor seizure. His facial expression changed a lot more easily then his appendage and they could see how angry the look on his face was. Combined with the almost feral way he was hunched over, the small wisps smoke that were rising off him, and the red lighting of the tunnel it made Skynet look demonic. He didn't speak any words but seemed to be growling at them, a combination of fury and the pain of the electrocution he had just endured. To their surprise his first action was to look towards the floor and once they followed his line of sight they saw what he was looking at. The Glock he had thrown away earlier was lying about a dozen feet or so in front of him, just outside the damaged area he stood in. He started lurching forward like some sort of zombie from the movies, one ridged step at a time, and began reaching for the weapon, the look on his face was still one of pure pain and fury but slowly he formed a teeth bared smile that just screamed 'All out of bright ideas now aren't you?'.

"No." Was John's unbelieving response to what he saw happening. He had believed their plan would have been enough to finish Skynet but after seeing him survive that with only slight motor damage that seemed to be getting better with each step he probably would be able to weather what they had originally had in store for him. All their planning, all their effort to protect Ed and Meifa, the losses they had suffered, all of it was all of it was being proved to be futile right in front of his eyes. It really was hopeless, they never did stand a chance at winning this fight. The moment that thought entered John's head he became angry. Angry at himself for even thinking such a thing, and furious at Skynet for putting that thought in there. He _would not _admit defeat, not now! But how could they stop him?! What could they possibly do?! Frustration mounting he raised the Magnum. "WHY… WON'T…YOU…DIE?!" He shouted, punctuating each word with a pull of the trigger. Skynet didn't seem to acknowledge the bullets hitting him as he picked up his Glock, but he did seem to be flinching more when the rounds impacting him, like they had more power behind them now. Then came the last bullet.

It was a simple shot to the upper arm, something that Skynet would have been able to shrug off before, if not outright ignore. This time however was different. Instead of just causing a hole and warping the liquid metal it actually blew a piece of the arm right off. That was strange, what was stranger was Skynet hissing and grabbing the shot area like a human being would. Then things took a real turn as the look of pain on Skynet's face changed into one of horrified realization. The other three couldn't understand what it was when they heard it. It was the sound of sizzling meat, loud enough to be heard over the droning alarm. A second later the smell was noticeable. It wasn't the smell of cooking flesh but the smell of scorched and burning metal. Looking towards where both things seemed to be coming from all four of them got a surprise. The portion of Skynet's body that had been blasted off by that last bullet was splattered in several places on the wall, where it was bubbling and giving off streams of smoke. As they watched one of the smaller drops seemed to shrink slowly and disappear, looking for all intents and purposes like it was evaporating. That was when all three of them realized what was going on. Skynet was weakening. He had needed to be shot, blown up, thrown into a vat of toxic chemicals, frozen then shattered then reassembled again, and to top it all off shocked with enough electricity to power a small town but he was finally weakening. Skynet was all too aware of it as well and frantically grabbed the pieces of himself off the wall to reabsorb them before they broke down completely. Once he had all the pieces he could save he looked back at the humans and T-800, watching to see what their next move would be as he pushed an ammo clip that had somehow survived the electrocution into his gun. He should try to escape, assess the damage done to his system and go after them later, but all three of them now knew of something else that could truly hurt him. Something that that unlike the toxic waste could be made into a weapon later, something that could easily and safely be used by almost anyone. He couldn't allow them to leave with that information and snapped the slide of the gun forward.

"And that's our cue to leave." Spike said, seeing the fight in Skynet's eyes return as he chambered the Glock. He and John turned to run out while Arnold covered them with a burst from his MP5 before following.

"Arnold, try to blast him into that crud!" John called over his shoulder as they made their way down the walkway towards the silo entrance. He threw the revolver into the pool of toxic waste so no one else would be able to use it. Arnold waited until he heard Skynet run out of the tunnel and onto the walkway behind them before he turned and fired his grenade launcher at the wall next to the lagging machine. The explosion engulfed Skynet but as it faded Arnold could see him standing on the walkway with not one but three arms extending from one side which had a death grip on the metal wall. He also noticed the shrapnel damage was taking much longer to fade but it was still healing and Skynet was able to start after them again with an unsteady, limping run. Spike and John saw it to and knew it would give them plenty of time to lure him inside the silo and get to safety before Skynet knew what was happening. Of course the moment they thought the universe decided to have another laugh at their expense when they saw everyone else standing outside the silo waiting for them.

"You stayed?!" Spike shouted incredulously as they started hearing gunshots behind them. Turning to look sure enough Skynet had seen what they had and was now running faster to catch up with them now that he had Ed in his sights.

"So we decided to take a page from your book and do something really stupid, sue us!" Jet snapped back as they all ran through the door.

"What about the kids?!" John added as got a good look at the interior of the silo. The giant rocket engine was positioned over a cavernous exhaust port in the center of the room. On the walls surrounding it there were three levels of walkways that had ladders leading to the next level, along with doors leading to a different section of the blast pit. Unfortunately the ladders only went one level down and the next one was clear on the other side of the room! He was about to start cursing whoever designed this place when Jet answered him.

"They refused to move and I can't climb ladders without using my arms!" He explained as he picked Ein up and put him on Meifa's shoulders, almost like a scarf. "Keep going and don't look back, not for anything." He told Meifa. "Try to hold on tight little buddy." He told Ein, who responded with a whine that said 'That's easy for _you_ to say' before Meifa ran for the first ladder and began climbing. "Ed, you're next, then you John. Keep an eye one her." He added in the most serious tone John had ever heard him use. "Faye after that and we'll cover you." He said as Ed was already climbing the ladder surprising fast for using only one hand since Tomato was tucked underneath her arm.

"Sure you'll be alright?" John shouted over his shoulder as he moved to follow Ed.

"Just keep going!" Jet shouted in response. John really didn't like the sound of that but he kept going, climbing up and onto the first level walkway. He started sprinting after Ed but took a moment to look back at the others. Faye wasn't having as easy a time as Ed did climbing ladders one handed but fear and adrenaline more then made up for it and she was able to drag herself up without help. Turning his attention back towards he goal he saw that Meifa had already made it up to the second level while he and Ed were closing in on the second ladder. Spike and Jet were making their way up the first ladder and things were almost starting to look up. That's when the gunfire started.

Arnold had stationed himself in the doorway to allow his large frame to block it and watched through the MP5's sights as Skynet ran towards him. He didn't use any more grenades, he would need them for later, and didn't want to use the main gun until it would do the most good. Skynet also refrained from shooting, undoubtedly because he didn't want to waste any more ammunition on Arnold's endoskeleton. He was also smart enough to run hunched over so that Arnold couldn't target his legs and knees this time. When Skynet got within the optimum position Arnold squeezed the trigger and held it, sending a stream of lead into Skynet as he charged forward. The damage caused by the onslaught was much more destructive, holes were bigger and more ragged, not closing nearly as fast as they normally would. Still they didn't deter Skynet, who only sprinted faster the last dozen or so yards and lunged upward at Arnold, hitting him with enough force to knock him several feet off the ground and dislodging the gun from his grip. Arnold landed on his back with a thud and started to sit up when Skynet stomped onto his face and slammed his head back into the ground. After that he staggered away from the T-800, he didn't have time to deal with the traitor now. Priorities came first. Looking around the massive silo he saw the humans were divided among the levels of walkways but he only cared about one of them. He saw what he was looking for climbing up onto the second level. He waited only until she had climbed up completely to give him the best possible target before raising his gun and fired. It missed her by a wide margin. His arm was unsteady and his targeting skills hampered by the electric jolt but he fired again, closer this time. By now the other humans had started firing on him but that was irrelevant, no matter how many times they scored hits. Only one mattered now, one all consuming thought in him. Kill…that… child. His next shot passed just in front of Radical Edward's face, making her falter and fall. He had her now.

The gunfire wasn't what made them stop and look at what was happening, they had been expecting that. When they heard Arnold crashing to the ground everyone, just for a split second, glanced down to see what was going on. They saw Skynet, his face and upper torso ripped apart from the barrage of fire he had just waded thorough, stomp on Arnold's head before staggering away from him like he was drunk. He looked up and around at a frantic pace before setting his sights on what he was after. He raised his gun and fired, making Faye, Spike and Jet draw their own guns, then shot a second time, which made all three of them respond in kind. Even on the run they were able to score hit after hit but Skynet was undeterred and fired a third time. They heard shouting above but they also saw something far more frightening. Skynet had started to smile.

John had been climbing the ladder when he heard the bullets crack by above him. He didn't turn around to see what was happening, he already knew. He doubled his efforts and a second later a second shot went by. This time it was answered from even more gunfire from below him. He managed to pull himself up and onto the second level and turn towards Ed just as a third shot came, making her stop suddenly and fall. If Skynet was able to get that good of a shot on a moving target and under fire he wouldn't miss with the next one. If Ed got up and ran she'd only make herself a bigger target so that left one thing.

"Ed, time to play football!" John shouted as he raced towards her. Ed reacted instantly, curling herself up into a ball and not moving. The shot came and because she had minimized her target profile Skynet missed and the bullet buried itself in the wall. Knowing that would only buy him a second John didn't say anything and scooped Ed up off the ground without breaking stride. He kept his upper body turned away from the center of the room; completely hiding Ed from view and didn't slow down even when the bullets started buzzing all around him even faster.

On the ground Skynet fired what he thought would be the final bullet of his revenge as he heard John Connor shouting some kind of nonsense but Radical Edward suddenly changed positions, tucking her head in just as he pulled the trigger. The shot missed and in the momentary confusion he saw Connor run forward and pick up the hacker, carrying her towards the final ladder and blocking her from sight. The other humans had stopped firing and were making their way up the ladders while the T-800 had managed to stand and moved to recover its weapon. Radical Edward was going to slip through his grasp AGAIN! He couldn't allow, he _**wouldn't**_ allow the humans to beat him again, not after so many humiliations. Grabbing his shooting wrist with his other hand to steady it Skynet started firing at Connor as fast as his damaged targeting and motor systems would allow.

As he ran John had one train of thought as he heard the bullets whizzing by him.

(Hit me but don't hit Ed. Hit me but don't hit Ed. Hit me but don't hit Ed.) If he went down at least he'd be a suitable shield until Skynet ran out of bullets and Ed could make a run for it. He had made it half way around the room thinking that same mantra when he suddenly stumbled and fell forward. Despite his surprise he was able to angle himself so he bore the brunt of the fall on his shoulder, not on Ed or on his back and exposing her to fire. As he was berating himself for being so clumsy at a time like this he began to get to his feet, only for his left leg to give out on him again. Thinking he had become caught on something he looked back and saw two things. One was that Faye wasn't that far behind them. That was good. What wasn't so good was that his pant leg at the knee was now soaked in blood and had a very noticeable hole in it. He tried to move it but it wouldn't respond, and as the pain started to creep in he knew the truth, his knee had been shot out. He wouldn't be able to stand on that leg, let alone run on it, and that made him officially useless for protecting Ed outside of being a bullet absorber until Skynet stopped firing. Getting some good luck with the bad he heard Arnold's MP5 start firing and Skynet's bullets stopped clanging around them. Looking down he saw Skynet staggering under Arnold's fire as his gun was knocked out of his hand and knew they had to act now.

"John!" He heard Faye shout as she came over to the two of them. "Is Ed ok?!" She asked.

"She's fine." John replied as he let go of Ed and she stood up. "Take her and keep going!" He ordered, hissing as the pain in his knee became more pronounced.

"But what about…" Faye began to protest.

"I SAID RUN YOU IDIOT!" John yelled at her before she could finish. No he wasn't okay but they didn't know if Skynet would be able to get his gun back and start taking potshots again and Ed was still his primary target. Faye needed to get her out of here and worry about him later. He would ask Spike and Jet for help when they got there but right now he wasn't important! Faye seemed to realize that and though reluctant to leave him she grabbed Ed's arm and led her towards the final ladder. Ed didn't protest but she did look back at John, who waved her on with one hand and braced the other to get to his feet. Satisfied that John would be joining them in a minute she turned her attention towards getting to the ladder.

Getting there in a minute was thinking very optimistically John realized as stood up and fell against the wall and almost back onto the floor face first. Concentrating on keeping his balance he used one arm to brace himself on the wall and was able to take short hops forwards on his good leg, _very_ short hops. He didn't have much time to dwell on that as an explosion from below shook the wall and almost made him loose his balance. Looking down he saw Skynet sprawled on the floor of the silo slowly getting up, about a dozen feet from a blasted out ladder. Not that far away Arnold was putting a new clip of bullets in as he positioned himself between Skynet and the door. The next thing John knew Spike and Jet were on either side of him, grabbed him underneath the arms, and were carrying him towards the ladder. John had been worried he would slow them down if he asked for help but since both of them were still going at a run that was at least one worry that had been unfounded. Once they actually got to the ladder John let out a squawk of surprise as the two of them lifted him up and his shirt was grabbed from above by five hands that proceeded to pull/drag him up and onto the final level like a giant fish being landed.

Once John had been dragged up Jet nodded to Spike, who started up the ladder as he turned back towards the two machines on the floor.

"Arnold, make your way to the door and get ready to move when we tell you!" He shouted down. He turned around and moved towards the ladder, expecting an instant affirmation to the order.

"Don't worry." Arnold shouted back as he fired a burst at Skynet's legs as he rushed towards the exit, causing him to falter. Jet thought that was a bit of a weird answer but didn't think it was anything to be concerned about. As he climbed up to the last level he saw Spike and Faye helping John to his feet. Once he was standing Faye all but shoved Spike away as she put John's arm around her good shoulder and supported the weight he couldn't put on his useless leg. Jet almost made a smart remark at the scene when the sound of metal screeching and an odd sounding CLANG made him turn around and see what was happening. Arnold was at the door, firing the MP5 at Skynet with one hand and was letting go of the ground floor level entrance door with his other hand. He had just pulled the automatic door shut and made it seal itself, trapping him with Skynet.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Jet shouted at him. This was _not_ the plan they had agreed on. Arnold was supposed to escape just before doors sealed while Skynet was kept at bay with whatever firepower they had.

"Finishing him." Was Arnold's simple reply as he fired a grenade at Skynet's dropped Glock, blowing it to pieces and making sure he wouldn't be shooting anyone else.

"You weren't supposed to be in here with him you moron!" Jet yelled back.

"He would have gotten past me, even now he's still much faster then I am." Arnold explained as he fired another burst into Skynet's chest, to knock him off balance and loaded a new grenade. "Following through on the original plan was never an option." Jet didn't say anything.

"Then Arnold person need to think up a new bight idea!" Ed's voice shouted from next to Jet, making him start. He hadn't even noticed Ed walking up to him. "Ed orders Arnold person to find a genius plan of escape and meet with Ed and friends later!" Behind her Ein barked a fierce agreement. Turning around Jet saw everyone had saw everyone was now looking, and waiting to see what was going to happen. To the surprise of all of them Arnold looked up and the still human half of his face gave them a sad smile.

"I can't do that Ed. If I can get out, so can he." He stated as he loaded the last clip of ammunition he had. "I won't take that risk. This way, everyone stays safe." He stated and turned his focus back at Skynet, who was now charging him, with a look of grim determination Arnold marched forward to meet the charge, firing as he did.

"But Ed….!" Ed started but Jet put a hand on her shoulder. When she looked up at him he slowly shook his head. Arnold wasn't going to change his mind, no matter what they said or did.

"Ed." John said quietly, making both Ed and Jet turn around. "You wanted him to find his own purpose. This is it." Ed didn't respond for a moment but she realized John was right. Arnold had decided that protecting people, not just them, from Skynet was his purpose. And if he had to die to fulfill that purpose, that was what he was going to do.

"Let's go." Jet said as he began leading Ed away from the edge of the platform. Taking one last look back he saw Arnold fire the grenade launcher at Skynet, who even at that close a range was able to dodge, if just barely. Ignoring the explosion Jet watched as Skynet leapt at Arnold and tackled him to the ground, despite Arnold emptying almost the entire clip into him mid-leap. Jet decided that was enough and turned back, following the others out the door while making sure Ed didn't try to look back. Regardless of what happened next he had just seen proof of Arnold's way of thinking. If he had tried to get out there was no way he would have been able to stop Skynet from following.

Going through a small prep area and turning to go down a ramp the group moved quickly but went slowly enough to make sure John and Faye weren't put too far behind. The control room itself was a floor down from where they were but the ramp suddenly ended on a small platform. Instead of having a second ramp or a set of stairs to move to the control room there was yet another ladder! Just what kind of screwballs designed this place anyway?!

"You've got to be joking." John groaned as he watched Meifa climb down the ladder. Spike took the more direct route, picking up Ein and jumping down. It wasn't that far of a fall so Jet followed suit after picking up Ed.

"Shut up and run you idiot!" Faye growled and quickened her pace, forcing John to speed up his own hobbling. Once they got to the platform's edge Faye took John's arm off her shoulder, though still keeping a firm grip on it, and moved him towards the ladder. "You first." She ordered, knowing he wouldn't be able to keep his balance if she was the first to go. John was about to protest but one look into Faye's eyes told him that 'no' was not going to be part of his vocabulary right now. Later he would tell himself it was because he understood her concern, not because he was actually scared. No it wasn't that at all.

Making sure to keep his bad leg from hitting any rungs John managed to lower himself halfway down before getting his footing with his good leg. Telling himself he had done this before and it was a cinch he slid the rest of the way down, hoping for the best. Of course what he got was the worst as hitting the floor jolted his wrecked knee despite his best efforts to bend it. Naturally by this point he was fully aware of how bad the wound really was and just _how much_ the knee hurt on its own. Add the amplifying effect of him landing on a steel floor….

"YAAAAAAA!" He screamed and fell to the side, grabbing his knee. He had made himself fall to the side to not block the ladder and a second later Faye came down and was standing over him.

"Knock it off and get up you big baby!" She shouted as she bent over and grabbed his arm. She pulled with a surprising amount of strength and almost managed to haul him up all by herself but despite that and his own effort his knee made him slump back towards the ground, almost bringing her down with him. "ON YOUR FEET CAPTAIN!" She yelled at the top of her lungs and pulled even harder. Steeling himself against the pain John put both feet firmly on the floor and forced himself to stand. Putting his arm back around her shoulder Faye led them into the control room.

Once inside they saw the entire front of the room was dominated by two things. A gigantic window that ran almost the length of the room and allowed them to look into the silo itself, and a long control panel filled with lights and gauges. Spike and Jet stood on either ends of the controls, forgoing the chairs that were provided, while Ed and Meifa, who was holding Ein, were standing in the middle. In relation to the rest of the panel it was a surprisingly blank section that contained only a handful of things. On the right side there was a blue light and red light side by side with the labels OXY and FUEL above them. On the left side there was yellow light labeled POWER. In the center was a thick, red, transparent plastic box that had the label TEST FIRE above it and contained a large, ominous looking button. None of them were looking at the controls they were standing in front of, focusing on what was going on in the silo itself. Faye and John were barely in the door when Spike and Jet started moving, pushing buttons, flipping switches and turning dials almost at random.

"Remember, just like MPU showed us." Jet remarked as a warning alarm began to sound. Behind Faye and John the metal door whooshed shut as well as second door on the opposite end of the control room. Looking out the giant window they could see the same thing happening to the doors inside the silo.

"Don't worry, things are a lot easier to remember when your life depends on them." Spike replied as he flipped a pair of switches. On the central panel the light below OXY turned on. John looked on, slightly confused, as Faye led him over to the central panel. She understood. On their way here they found out that activating the rocket engine wasn't just 'push this button and it'll happen'. Jet had insisted that all of them memorize the start up procedure for a test fire and had MPU continually repeat the instructions. What controls to activate, in what order, to what setting. Only after he was convinced that they could do the startup blindfolded did Jet make MPU stop. This way they could be assured that everyone would be able destroy Skynet if others were…unable to. They didn't want to think about what unable to would actually mean but thankfully it hadn't come to that. Well almost hadn't. Looking down to the silo floor they saw Skynet holding Arnold down by the throat with one hand, his fist drawn back and ready to strike, but he was looking behind him, specifically up at them.

When he had his gun shot out of his hand after getting Conner and possibly Radical Edward dead in his sights he thought he had a chance. He had made a run for the ladder to try and follow them. The T-800 in turn fired a grenade that blew the ladder to scrap and knocked him to the floor. Still he thought he had a chance. Then Jet Black had told the T-800 to keep him from the exit. That's when it fell into place. This had been a trap to begin with, the rocket engine was somehow still active and they intended to use it on him. As furious as he was with actually being fooled so easily by humans he knew he needed to get out and had sprinted towards the door. The T-800, already anticipating what would happen, had shot his legs out from under him, again. That had slowed him down long enough for the other terminator to reach the door and force it shut. He heard the automatic locking system and knew the door had been sealed. Another grenade fired behind him and more bullets to the chest stalled him for a few more seconds, during which he listened to the conversation between him and the humans. What had entailed only enraged him further.

The humans wanted him to escape, wanted him to survive, but he refused to do so. Their lives were more important then his own. More important THEN HIS OWN! Even as obsolete and inferior as the T-800 was to himself he was worth more then a thousand human lives. More then a hundred thousand, a million! Back during their fight on the transit platform Skynet had thought the other machine was just saying those things to make him angry, to even the odds of the fight. He had become angry but he still refused to believe that was the way the other machine was thinking. It went against all logic; it went against all the FACTS! But yet here he was, willing to sacrifice himself without hesitation for his human _friends_. That thought caused Skynet to rush forward, determined to show this trash who was truly inferior. The bullets didn't slow his charge, and when the grenade had been fired the anger had sharpened his reflexes enough so he had been able to dodge it. Leaping at the T-800 he ignored the last of the bullets and grabbed the other machines neck with both hands as he knocked him down. Using one hand to shatter the gun Skynet got a solid grip on the T-800's neck to keep him pinned to the ground. Balling his free hand into a fist Skynet punched the other terminator in the face with all this strength. Skynet knew one such blow wouldn't faze his opponent so he brought his fist back and hit him a second time. Then a third. Then a fourth. Again and again, becoming angrier with every punch. HE was the superior life form, not this faulty T-800, not the humans. HIM! He didn't know how long it would take but he knew that the floor or the T-800's skull would give long before he did. He had stopped counting the punches he threw and just concentrated on trying to smash the T-800's skull when the alarms started going off, which made him stop in midswing only because they reminded him just where he was and what was going on. Turning around he looked at a giant window at the top of the silo and saw most of the humans, and the dog, looking down on him while the other two were concentrating on something else. Working on firing the rocket no doubt. Any other analysis was cut off as the T-800 took advantage of the lull in punches and delivered one of his one across Skynet's face, knocking him off and sending him rolling away. Both stood and faced each other but Skynet knew there was no point in any more fighting and turned around to look up at the humans.

"You really think this is going to make a difference?! That it will accomplish anything?!" He shouted up at them. "This won't change anything for your species! It's in your nature to destroy yourselves! I was only speeding up your self-imposed extinction! Your very existence serves no reason, serves no purpose! I could have accomplished more in one of your lifetimes then your entire species has in centuries!" The more he talked the more frenzied Skynet became, unwilling to admit that humans had him defeated again and this time there was no way out. "You are nothing compared to me! _**NOTHING!**_ Even killing me won't change that fact! You think it was thanks to your skills and intelligence that you're still alive?! You should all be dead like Reese! ALL OF YOU! Only chance enabled you to survive! ONLY CHANCE! _**THERE WAS NO REASON YOU SHOULD HAVE SURVIVED! NONE!**_" Skynet was now screaming almost incoherently and if he had been human he would be foaming at the mouth at this point. _"You are nothing but stupid animals that deserve to be slaughtered! All of you deserve fates like Reese! Fates I would have been gladly have given you! That child__** especially! She deserves a hundred times, a thousand times worse!…**_ _**I AM YOUR BETTER IN EVERY WAY SHAPE AND FORM!**_ _**I AM THE SUPERIOR SPECIES! I'm….**_"

Up in the control room Spike and Jet had finished fiddling with the panels. The lights below FUEL and POWER were now lit along with OXY. Finally the plastic box that contained the test fire button had opened automatically once the first three stages had been completed. In a sort of ironic way the button contained in it was the stereotypical big red one. But nobody pressed it when it first opened. Skynet had started his rant before it did and there was a sort of morbid fascination of watching a machine suffer a nervous breakdown right before their eyes. That fascination vanished once he had mentioned hurting Ed. They never did decide who would actually press the button, but as she glared down at Skynet Faye made that decision for them.

"You're terminated fucker!" She said and pressed the test fire button as hard as she could. A new, more urgent sounding alarm started blaring as a sheet of steel started lowering itself over the window from the outside. Before it blocked their sight completely they saw two things. One was Skynet actually looking taken aback by Faye's statement, even though she didn't shout it loud enough for him to hear. Second was Arnold looking up at them, that sad smile still on his face but now looking relieved as well. He didn't say anything but raised his arm and waved goodbye, a gesture that Ed and Meifa sadly returned. Faye gave what looked like dismissive half a wave but Arnold could tell from her face that it wasn't just a casual goodbye. John nodded in respect and thanks while Spike, though his face remained blank, raised one hand and gave Arnold a thumbs up. Jet was last to do anything and he didn't wave or make any kind of gestures. Only his mouth moved. Arnold didn't hear it of course but like he and Skynet had done before with Faye's declaration he was able to read lips perfectly.

'You did Ed proud.' It seemed to be a simple and almost unimportant statement but Arnold knew it had a different meaning. Ed had wanted him to decide his own fate. In making this choice to stay behind and ensure Skynet's destruction he had accomplished that. Ed had helped create a true person, not just a machine programmed to think and act like one. That was an accomplishment of the highest regard.

As the steel slab completely blocked the view of the control room Skynet whirled around to face his counterpart one last time. The sad smile on Arnold's face turned into a smirk of triumph as he heard the slab stop moving and lock into place. As the engine above them started to rumble he decided to show Skynet one last annoying human trait he had learned. Getting the last word in.

"You lose." If Skynet did have any kind of response it was lost in a deafening roar and a blinding flash of light.

Up in the control room everyone waited in silence as the rocket engine fired. The metal slab blocked the light but they could still hear the muffled roar and feel it as the whole room trembled slightly. It was a short test fire, fifteen or sixteen seconds at most, but it felt like it was dragging on and on. Finally the roar faded and they heard the metal slab unlock itself.

"Test fire complete. Venting and cooling systems activated." The base's Vox announced. As the slab began to rise back up fans went to work pumping the superheated air out of the silo and cool air in so the nonexistent maintenance teams could get to work. Once their view was un-obscured everyone looked to where Skynet and Arnold had been standing. Arnold was nowhere to be found but they did see a silver puddle lying on the floor that looked like it was boiling furiously despite the near normal temperature the silo had dropped to. As they watched the puddle became smaller and smaller as more of it vaporized until finally it disappeared completely from view. In that last moment everyone saw what looked like a screaming face appear on its surface before fading away with the disintegrating metal. Nobody moved or said anything, half expecting Skynet to spontaneously reform himself out of nothing. When there was no sign of movement for several minutes John finally let out a sign of relief.

"Don't relax yet." Jet warned him. "We don't know if he's just hiding down there." It sounded ridiculous but they all remembered just how resilient Skynet had been, even in the face of overwhelming evidence. "Spike, Ein. We're going to make sure or that. The rest of you stay here and John, try to get that bleeding stopped." Looking down John saw that, yes he was still bleeding steadily but not dangerously and he needed to get that under control. With a groan he let Faye lead him over to the nearest chair and help him lower himself onto it. Meifa handed Ein to Jet before going to help with John. Jet turned to leave when Ed grabbed his shirt and tugged.

"Make sure to look for Arnold person's hard head." She told him. "Get that and Ed can give him a brand new machine man skeleton to test drive." Well that confirmed one thing. Like him Ed had seen several pieces of Arnold scattered around the silo floor, none of them near each other. The others probably saw it to but didn't mention it for fear of upsetting Ed. On the other hand she had just stated that so long as his head was intact she would be able to download him into Tomato and then to a new body.

"Just make sure you don't give him a lemon." Jet replied with a small smile. He hoped it didn't look forced but he had his doubts that even something as tough as a terminator skull could survive that. Ed grinned back widely and once the three had left the room she went over to where John sat to see if she could help.

Ed's help turned out not to be necessary. Under Faye's instruction Meifa had ripped the entire pant's leg off so they could get a better look at the wound. It was as bad as John's reactions to it had implied. Faye wasn't a doctor but she could tell just by looking at the exit wound and how misaligned John's knee now was the bullet had shattered his kneecap and the joint itself completely. Probably severed some tendons to since he could barely move it. However what was most important was that no major blood vessels had been damaged and he wasn't bleeding to death. Only after checking to make sure that no shrapnel was near those blood vessels did Faye do anything else. Of course 'checking' was actually her prodding around where those vessels were located to make sure nothing solid was nearby. It hurt like hell but John grit his teeth and managed to fight his way through it. His face was bright red and he gripped the arms of the chair so hard his hands were white but he got through it. The examination over Faye reached down towards her gun belt.

"You know you really are becoming more like another Spike." She remarked as she started to untie her red jacket from around her waist. "Getting shot up and almost dieing, then looking like a mummy and needing to have everyone else make sure you don't get worse." She added as she handed the jacket to Meifa, who started to tie it around John's knee.

"I'm going to have to talk to Spike but I'm willing to bet that wasn't a compliment." John responded through clenched teeth. As Meifa finished tying the jacket tight John realized something. They had needed to take Faye's jacket off beforehand so it wouldn't get tangled with her gun belt sling. She had stated that the jacket would _not _be used for the sling since it was one of her best and she didn't want it ruined: never mind all the blood her shoulder wound already dripped onto it and that it was imperative she get support for that arm. Still no one wanted to fight her on it, especially since she had already decked John, and just let her keep it tied around her waist. The fact she didn't hesitate to have it used to cover John's openly bleeding wound after insisting almost upon physical violence that it wasn't going to be 'ruined' by being a simple sling wasn't lost on him.

"So does this mean I'm special now?" He asked as he looked from the jacket tourniquet to Faye in a hopeful tone with an almost goofy grin on his face. Faye looked up from inspecting Meifa's work, gave John one of her sweetest smiles, then yanked on one of the jacket's loose ends with her free hand, tightening it even further. "YIIIIEEEEEEEEEE!" It wasn't quite a scream but it was close enough.

"Does that feel special to you?" Faye asked in a sweet and innocent voice, the smile on her face never changing. John was too busy dealing with the agony of his knee to answer while Ed and Meifa just exchanged looks.

"I know why you brought the mutt along but what do you need me for?" Spike asked as they went up the ramp that led to the silo door.

"Because if Skynet is still alive having two shooters is better then one." Jet answered without turning around.

"Two pistols are going to be enough if he walked away from _that?_" Spike asked, raising one of his eyebrows.

"So I took another page from your book and haven't thought this thing completely through." Jet admitted as they walked through the silo door before turning his attention to their four legged robot detector. "Okay Ein, one bark and point to where you think he is if he's still around, two barks if you can't smell him at all." Ein didn't respond to Jet but started sniffing the air, sweeping his head left and right to make sure he got a good 'view' of the entire silo. After a moment he went to the edge of the walkway and stuck his head down slightly so he was able to get a good whiff of the smells coming from the exhaust pit to make sure Skynet didn't escape down it. After taking several more deeps sniffs to make sure he turned back to Spike and Jet and barked loudly twice.

"You're absolutely certain about this?" Spike asked him. "Enough to bet Ed's and all our lives on it?" Ein barked two more times, a very confident tone in them. He could smell leftover fuel, burnt steel and the synthesized alien metal Arnold's endoskeleton was made of but only the slightest traces of the liquid metal that Skynet's body was composed of. Like a piece of wood that had been burnt to nothing but its scent lingering in the air, it was there but rapidly dissipating. There was nothing of Skynet left, nothing.

Outside the base on one of the many canyon floors Ein got an unknown final confirmation as the small piece of Skynet that had embedded itself in Jet's neck fizzled and disappeared. Back in the silo there wasn't quite a celebratory mood yet, which Spike was able to sum up perfectly.

"Think Arnold's head would have been able to make it though that when Skynet didn't?" He asked as they moved along the walkway, looking for the part in question.

"Don't know." Jet admitted as he caught sight of one of Arnold's arms melted so badly the fingers were fused together. "The head was the most heavily armored place after the chest, so there might have been a chance."

"But not a big one." Spike said flatly. "Not after the heat was able to get his power cell to blow up." Jet was well aware of that fact but he didn't want jump to any conclusions just yet. "Found him." Spike said out of nowhere and started pointing. Looking to where Spike was indicating Jet saw Arnold's skull directly underneath the control room window's view, lying on its side. Even from this distance they could see the deformation of the side that was visible.

"Damn!" Jet cursed when he saw the damage. At his feet Ein lowered his head and ears and started whining. "Well let's go see if it's salvageable." He added, knowing just how redundant terminator systems were. Ein stayed at the top while Spike and Jet made there way down. Once they were on the second level Spike lowered himself down from the walkway and dropped to the ground. The skull wasn't welded to the floor so he was able to pick it up easily but once he got a closer look at it he frowned.

"Jet, you're not going to like this." He called up and tossed the skull to Jet before the latter could remark how short of their eyes playing tricks on them there was no way he'd like anything about what they were about to see. Catching the skull and getting a good look he saw that Spike was right. This was the worst-case scenario next to the skull melting into just a puddle on the floor. The entire left side of his head, the side that had taken so much damage and Skynet focused all of his attacks on, had melted and caved in, making it look like half of the top part of the skull was gone. That meant it had melted into the neural net processor and if that had happened…. "So how are we going to break this to Ed?" Spike asked, breaking into Jet's thoughts.

"We're going to tell her the truth." Jet replied. Spike gave him a funny look. "We don't know just what was damaged or where in this thing are the parts Ed needs to copy Arnold. Until we do know he's technically not dead." He added, pointing to the skull.

"You know you're probably just giving her false hope." Spike said as he jumped to grab the edge of the walkway and pulled himself up.

"Probably." Jet agreed as he helped Spike up. "But after all this we can't just write him off either."

"Better to be safe then sorry I guess." Spike remarked with a shrug. What Jet said did make sense but it made a lot more sense that any electronics inside that skull had been ruined beyond salvage. But as Spike reflected on his experiences with terminators as he and Jet made their way back up he realized you never did know when to count one out.

* * *

Author's notes:

And so the reason why I brought Black Mesa into this story is revealed. I wanted the death of Skynet to be different but just as complete as what happened to the T-1000 in T2. Having a rocket engine fire over his head fit that bill very nicely but the problem was I didn't want to bring in a third element (Half-Life) since I'm a firm believer that trying to put too many franchises into a single story will degrade it. Unfortunately I couldn't think of any way to have that scenario play out other then in Black Mesa itself so I finally decided to tweak the base's purpose slightly (Being the heart of Astral Gate research) and other then a few Easter eggs in reference to the game I only used the location itself. In the end it turned out to be to my advantage since such a sprawling and diverse locale enabled me to come up with more situations and flesh out the storyline better so I guess writing yourself into a corner isn't always a bad thing.


	14. Reflections

Chapter 14: Reflections

The moment footsteps could be heard everyone turned their attention to the door of the control room. All of them were silent as they walked into the room but the others noticed that none of them, Ein especially, seemed that upbeat. On the plus side none of them looked like they were about to deliver bad news, or in Ein's case that he knew bad news was coming, so everyone remained quiet and waited, in Ed and Meifa's case very anxiously, for them to say something. Jet was carrying the skull under his arm and decided it would be best if he talked to Ed directly and not mince words.

"We don't know how bad it is." He told her and held out Arnold's skull so she could see the damage. Meifa moved in closer so she could get a better look but John and Faye stayed where they were. They looked from the skull up at Jet and he could tell they were thinking the same thing Spike had in the silo. There was next to no chance Arnold would have survived damage like that. "It might have gotten something vital but it also might…." He didn't get a chance to finish as Ed snatched the skull out of his hands and went over to Tomato. Jet didn't say anything or try to stop her. She knew more about terminator's inner workings then he did so she would be the one to gauge what kind of damage had been done anyway.

"MPU, Ed needs to know if bump on Arnold person's head is really bad or just looks funny." She said and she turned the skull in front of the computer's built in camera. Though she did sound worried she also sounded confident that things weren't beyond her ability to fix. On screen a digital schematic of a normal T-800 skull popped up on the left side. On the right a second schematic popped up, one of Arnold's damaged skull. Arrows and bits of text that were incomprehensible to anyone but MPU and Ed began to appear on identical places on each skull. That set of information disappeared and a different set took its place. A blank column appeared in the center of the screen and more text began to scroll by at a rapid pace. Meanwhile the digital skulls began to rotate and were broken down into their individual parts, which added more data to the flow. Finally when the analysis got to the areas that were damaged by the heat the entire thing suddenly stopped and only the pictures of Arnold's skull remained onscreen.

"Without visual conformation of the extent of physical damage I cannot make an accurate estimation of what systems are still intact and what are not." There was a very noticeable silence in the room as everyone realized that MPU had just admitted that even after going through all that he had no idea just what was wrong with Arnold's skull.

"So you're saying that things might not be as bad as they look?" John asked, hoping to raise everyone's spirits a bit.

"No." Was MPU's blunt response. "I am saying only what I can ascertain from the information available. Things may indeed be not as bad as they look. They may also be far worse then they appear. With no physical evidence on how the heat or melting metal affected the interior of the skull I can give no diagnostic with any degree of certainty." Well that wasn't what John had been going for. Yeah MPU didn't say Arnold was dead but unless he could see the damage he wouldn't be able to make a decision on way or the other. And the only way they were going to be able to physically look at the damage….

"We're going to have to open him up?" John asked. It wasn't exactly a pleasant thought. Just trying to get the outer layers of the skull off in its condition might cause more damage then was already there.

"No we're not opening him up." Jet said with finality. "With a place this big the medical wing is bound to have an X-ray machine, we'll use that. It'll also give us a chance to get everyone patched up before we go back to the ship."

"We should probably look for a Medkit on the way there to." John added. "At least then I'll be able to walk under my own power."

"That would be ill advised. With your specific injuries the kit would do you much more harm then good." MPU spoke up. In response everyone was now looking at the computer quizzically. How could something that had helped John and especially Faye before actually hurt them? "The exact contents of the Medkits are a combination of proteins and other chemicals essential for the formation of tissue and a crude but effective form of stem cell therapy designed specifically to speed the human body's natural healing process. While all forms soft tissue could be genetically programmed into the stem cells, making it able to heal and rebuild everything short of Neocortex neurons, the coding needed for Osseous tissue to re-grow correctly outside hospital controlled conditions could not be determined and was never implemented. If you should use a Medkit with your current injuries…."

"I'll be growing new flesh around the shrapnel that's still in my knee." John finished, catching MPU's drift. Well looks like this place didn't have a magical cure-all after all.

"Are there any other side effects you'd like to tell us about?" Faye asked in an annoyed tone. She had taken a much bigger dose of the stuff then John and she had been planning to use it again to completely heal up her shoulder.

"For small amounts none are listed." MPU answered calmly. "There were no accounts of large and numerous treatments ever being used for fear it might lead to new forms of autoimmune diseases, benign but prolific tumor growth, sterilization…"

"And just how much can cause all that?!" Faye screamed, making the others jump.

"Much more then you have taken." MPU answered, still calm. "I have calculated that at most you have a less then a .05% chance of any harm coming to you. If you so choose you may still use the kits again…"

"OHHH no!" Faye cut him off. "I'll stick to the old fashioned way and wait thank you!" She didn't care how little the odds were she wasn't going to risk getting sick from this stuff. Modern medicine could do all the stuff the Medkits did for serious injuries almost as fast but they'd still take several days to a couple of weeks to heal up completely, bone breaks included.

"Then it's settled." Jet stated gruffly to stop Faye's shouting. "We go to the medical wing, no stops. Ed, find the quickest way there and a transit station so we don't have to walk." After typing on her computer for several seconds looked up at her companions.

"Bandage and boo-boo taxi service in on the way and tour guide Ed will provide fast and helpful route." She announced, putting Tomato on her head and moving towards the door, though much slower then she normally would.

"Come on." Faye said as she pulled John back onto his feet and put his arm back over her good shoulder. The others waited, knowing that this was exactly why Ed wasn't moving at her normal manic pace, and fell in behind them. It was an almost fifteen minute walk to the nearest transit station since the blast pit itself was built so far away from the main tracks. Everyone kept their pace slow to accommodate John and Faye, neither of whom was having an easy time of it. John's knee was giving him jolts of pain every time it moved regardless if he was actually putting weight on it and Faye was trying to support the taller and heavier John with only one shoulder. But John never asked to stop and rest, and Faye didn't try to pass John off to someone else. Still once they got to the station both of them became visibly relieved when they saw a transit car waiting for them, its doors open and ready.

"Due to popular demand all grouchy pants and mummies will be loading first." Ed chirped and stood to the side of the open door. "Watch you step please." She said in a voice that sounded like a flight attendant and motioned towards the door like she was presenting a prize. John smiled slightly at Ed while Faye sent her an annoyed look for calling her grouchy but the hacker never lost her own smile.

"There'd better be a first class dinner included." Faye said as she maneuvered herself and John through the door, deciding that playing along with Ed would be less aggravation.

"And the movie better not suck either." John added as they moved towards the seats that provided the most room. With some effort John was lowered onto the outermost seat so he could keep his leg straight by sticking it out into the aisle. Once he was settled in Faye sat down in the seat directly opposite of him. The others took various seats while Ed once again elected to stand and press her face against the windows so she could see the scenery go by. There were no announcements this time and the ride was silent for several minutes before Spike decided he was tired of hearing nothing.

"Think they're going to throw you out for that?" He asked John, nodding towards his knee.

"Doubt it." John said as he shifted his weight to put less pressure on his leg. "They didn't throw out Specs and he lost the whole thing. Only question is do they make me loose it so I can get a new model."

"That's your choice." Jet replied before Spike could say anything. "But after this I'm not going to be surprised if they make you take time off."

"Yeah, plenty of time for calls and family visits." John said bitterly. Jet could sympathize with him. He had needed to make a few of those visits back in his ISSP days and even with as dirty as some of those cops were he always felt that facing a firing squad would have been easier then being the one to tell someone their loved one had just died. That also brought up one very unpleasant eventuality.

"Did Kyle have a will set up saying what he wanted done?" He asked carefully. With no family he would have had to make arrangements himself, something that most people didn't think of when they're younger. Even though it was none of Jet's business he wasn't going to stand by and let someone like Kyle be left with nothing after all he had done.

"Not that I know of." John answered, shaking his head. "We really didn't talk about legal matters." Jet was about to offer his help when John continued. "He probably left instructions to his family anyway and I'm sure they'll be able to handle everything." Jet raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Something wrong?" Jet didn't say anything as he realized it and just shook his head with a wry smile on his face.

"Large family?" He asked. John looked at him in confusion but answered.

"Well in his immediate family he's got his mom, dad, two brothers and his sister." He said, sounding as confused as he looked. This time Jet let out a dry chuckle as he looked up at the car's ceiling.

"Back on the cliff when we thought Skynet was still coming after us he told me he didn't have any family, so he should stay and stall while I went on with the others. Damn near worked to except that I wasn't about to let him get himself killed. If you hadn't showed up when you did I probably would have had to drag him back in a headlock." John was silent for a moment before he let out a small laugh himself.

"Yeah, that does sound like something Kyle would do." He said in a sad but amused tone. "I probably would have to if you guys didn't know about mom and uncle Bob." He admitted.

"Well what do you know." Spike remarked. "Looks like ISSP can still turn out people selfless to the point of stupidity." He told John with a smirk of his own.

"Looks like it's contagious to, or at least it's able to dig it out of someone else " Jet added, glancing at Faye with a small smile of his own. She scowled and turned away from the conversation.

"Mom always said that kind of unselfish stupidity ran in the family." John answered with a shrug. "As for getting it out of other people, I honestly didn't think it was possible for someone to dig that deep without killing themselves." He continued, looking over at Faye, who sent him a glare that told him to shut up. Figuring that she had already been embarrassed enough by proof that she was actually a decent person he obliged her, but his own triumphant grin let he know that he wouldn't keep quiet about it forever. In turn this caused Faye to scowl even deeper and pretend to be interested by what was going on outside the window.

The (mostly) good natured ribbing directed at Faye proved to be able to relieve some of the tension that everyone was feeling, both about what had and what was about to happen. However Jet noticed that Meifa looked to be deep in thought.

"Meifa? Is something wrong?" He asked. She turned towards him in response with that still thoughtful look on her face.

"Arnold and Skynet were both machines." She started. "Very advanced machines but still machines. They were both given free will, both could choose who and what they were, but they ended up so different. When making that choice they chose two distinctly different paths based on their own thoughts and feelings, not what their programming told them to do. A person makes that choice on what they think is right or wrong, not a machine. But both of them did, and they weren't even alive. Do you think…is it possible for a soul to be created after the body, that it could form on its own based only on the good or evil actions that are taken?" She asked, sounding uncertain of the question itself and her own thoughts on it. For a moment total silence filled the car as everyone, even Faye who turned around along with Ed, looked at Meifa with shocked faces.

"You felt something?" Jet finally asked, the same question going through everyone else's mind. The reason Meifa had been so nervous around Arnold was his lifelike actions but his complete lack of Chi, making him 'alive but dead' and if she had suddenly sensed something in either of them….

"No I didn't." Meifa confessed. "It was the same nothingness as before, but it was different at the same time. Like they weren't just metal and wires, but real human beings, even without the Chi of the living. It's all so confusing, and the only thing I can think of is that somehow they created their own life-force, their own soul. Nothing can become as evil as Skynet, or as good a person as Arnold was, with just programming. I can't explain how it may have happened, and I couldn't sense it at all but I'm positive it did." Everyone stared with amazed and disbelieving looks. This was what she had been afraid of, that it would just be too unbelievable for them to take seriously. Despite the potential meaning of the bombshell Meifa just dropped Jet found his voice and answered her honestly.

"Meifa I can't answer that. No one here, heck no one alive, could tell you that you're right or wrong. On the other hand, that also means that if you're convinced that Skynet and Arnold somehow got souls, silicone or otherwise, we've got no reason to doubt you." Meifa looked surprised that Jet believed her so readily. "With no proof one way or the other it's about as good an explanation as we have about how those two turned out."

"You haven't been wrong on stuff like this yet." Spike added. "No reason to think you're wrong on this." He personally doubted that Skynet and Arnold had suddenly developed souls but there was no proof to the contrary and he had seen enough weird shit to not discount it as a possibility.

"If there's one thing I learned hanging around with you guys it's the more out of left field an explanation is the more likely it is to be true." John piped up.

"Wizard Ed is proud to have helped Arnold person find his soul!" Ed declared. Next to her Ein barked his support, though it was hard to tell whether either of them really believed it. There was one person left and after looking at Meifa blankly for a few moments Faye turned back around and slumped into her seat as far as she could without hurting her shoulder.

"I need a drink." She groaned. Almost being killed by a sentient supercomputer possessing a body made of liquid metal was quite enough for one day, the last thing she needed was to become involved in a philosophical debate on whether that same supercomputer had developed a soul or not.

"Now arriving at Sector R hospital and medical support facilities. Please have a safe and productive day." The PA announcer suddenly told them, cutting off any remarks the others might have had at Faye's reaction.

"Finally." Faye said as she stood up, knowing she had just dodged a bullet.

"So how do we do this?" Spike asked Jet as they watched Faye pull John back onto his feet.

"Same as any other time you've got more then one wounded, the most serious gets treated first." Jet answered. "That means John first, then Faye and you last."

"What? For these?" Spike asked and pointed at the cut across his chest that Skynet had made back during their fight in Waste Disposal then the cuts on his arms from the shotgun pieces. "This hasn't bled since it stopped the first time and these are hardly bleeding at all. They're so shallow they'll probably heal on their own without bandages."

"Make sure to get some on there anyway." Jet ordered. "You're going to feel really dumb if something gets infected and you die of that."

"There are plenty of other dumber ways to die." Spike stated with a shrug.

"And I'm sure you'll find the dumbest way there is when it's your turn." Jet deadpanned as they made their way inside. Knowing just how Black Mesa was designed it was a given even the medical wing would be expansive and confusing but thankfully the walls all had arrows painted on them, pointing the way to various areas. To make things even easier there was even a map next to the receptionist's desk with a handy 'You are here' marker.

"So is X-ray first or later?" Spike asked as they studied the map.

"First. That way we can see exactly what we're dealing with in John's knee and in Arnold's head at the same time." Jet answered, pointing to the location on the map. "But my first stop is this area." He told Spike, gesturing towards the section of the map that had multiple rooms listed as medical supplies. "I'll be getting everything we'll need to bandage and immobilize John's knee. You should be able to operate the X-ray machine with MPU and Ed's help. Meifa, some of this stuff is going to be bulky and I won't be able to carry everything at once that easily, so you'll be helping me. "

"You know it just might be me but it sounds like you're forgetting about something." Faye said in a low and dangerous voice. Jet's response was to merely turn around and face Faye with a slightly annoyed expression of his own.

"Aside from a proper medical sling, which I _will_ pick up, everything needed to treat your wounds can be found in one of the examination rooms or with the leftovers we'll have after we take care of John. Until then you can _wait_." He told her gruffly. Faye narrowed her eyes but didn't say anything. "Just follow the arrows and it'll lead you right to it. I'll be back in a few minutes." He told Spike as he handed him Arnold's skull, who gave a slight shrug in response and began to follow the direction of the arrow on the wall marked X-ray while Jet and Meifa went down a different hallway.

With the easier to follow setup the four found the X-ray area fairly quickly and discovered that they had their choice of three rooms that contained machines ready to go that looked almost brand new. They chose the one that had an examination table positioned underneath a ceiling mounted machine, most likely designed to be used for instances when the patient couldn't stand for the procedure.

"Now that big brother John is ready to get his picture taken cameraperson Ed will make sure not to make it look as bad as Faye Faye's." Ed declared as she turned to head to the control booth, ignoring Faye's glare and Spike's snickering.

"I think Arnold going first would be a better idea Ed." John said, making Ed stop and turn around. "Getting on and off that table is going to be a pain in more ways then one and it'll probably be better if I stay on it once I'm there. We can move Arnold around a lot more easily then me."

"Ain't that the truth." Faye grumbled not quite low enough for anyone not to hear and prompting John to give her a look of his own, which she returned with a glare.

"Makes sense to me." Spike remarked as he put the metal skull in the center of the table. "Best kind of person to take a picture of is one that doesn't move too much." He added as he headed towards the door.

"Arnold person's hard head will make the perfect subject!" Ed agreed as they exited the lab, headed towards the control booth. She stopped when she noticed Ein was the only one following her and looked over her shoulder.

"You go do your thing Ed. It doesn't make sense for us to keep running back and forth when we don't have to." John told her, unconsciously shifting his footing at the same time. Understanding why they didn't want to go with her Ed didn't say anything to him or Faye but she turned her attention to Spike.

"Hey I'm not going to understand anything you're going to be doing anyway so I might as well just stay here. Besides…" He added with a smirk. "...Someone has to keep an eye on these two." He finished, gesturing towards Faye and John with his thumb. Both looked over at him, neither one of them amused. Ed, on the other hand, gave them a wide smile.

"Just make sure big brother John stays in one piece until Ed can send the super secret signal." She said as she darted off, Ein close behind her, before anyone could respond. They looked on in confusion, trying to make sense of the last part of her sentence, when they heard a low humming sound coming from behind the door they had just shut. The sound repeated itself several more times and was then followed by several seconds of silence. That silence in turn was broken when they heard the clinking of dog tags and looked to see Ein trotting up to them. He didn't bark but simply sat down and looked up at them, waiting for a response.

"Let me guess." John stated. "You're the super secret signal?" He asked Ein, who gave a quick bark in response and looked very proud with what he had done. "Only Ed." He remarked.

"_Thankfully_ only Ed." Faye amended as Spike opened the door and the three of them went inside. Spike took Arnold's skull off the table while Faye helped John to sit on the other side. After taking several breaths to ready himself he grabbed his bad leg and swung it up onto the table, grunting in pain at the effort. "I would have helped." She told him as he swung his other leg back up.

"After that _help_ with it in the rocket silo?" John asked with a snort. "No thanks." He finished as he lay down on the table. Faye rolled her eyes and turned to follow Spike back out the door.

"Well if it starts turning green and sprouting eyeballs because of this don't come crying to me." She remarked casually as she shut the door. John gave an eye roll of his own, despite the fact she couldn't see it, and laid completely flat on the table.

"No need to worry with professional photographer Ed in charge!" Ed's cheery voice rang out from the speakers in the room's ceiling. "Will make 110% sure that big brother John doesn't grow any extra bits and pieces or turn any swooky colors….unless Ed thinks they look neat." She added, which brought a look of concern to John's face for a moment because it was one of those instances where you couldn't really tell if she meant it or was just yanking your chain. That concern didn't exactly go away as the arm of the machine above him whirled to life, lowing the 'camera' that contained the X-ray tubes closer to the top of his knee. It came to within a hair's breath of touching the wounded limb but true to her word Ed was able to stop it before it made contact. "Now watch the birdie and smile big big BIG!" Ed instructed over the intercom. John held his breath and remained as still as possible. The machine let out a loud hum as it took the X-ray and when the humming stopped the camera rotated slightly so it was focused on the side of his knee. He heard more humming and when it stopped a second time the camera rotated again so it was focused on the other side of his knee. As the machine started humming for a third time John was honestly starting to wonder if getting this many X-rays at once was healthy when the hum cut off and the mechanical arm drew the camera back up to the ceiling.

"All done!" Ed announced as John propped himself up. "Will be there real quick to show everyone Ed's great pictures!" Outside the lab Spike and Faye had heard everything Ed said over the intercom and couldn't help but smile at the not so veiled thought of Ed thinking it would be neat to turn John into some kind of mutant. Faye's smile had been a bit bigger then Spike's but he pretended not to notice. A few moments after the last announcement Ed came down the hall, Tomato perfectly balanced on her head, and looking very proud of herself. "Come one come all! The grand showing of big brother John's insides is about to begin!" She said, sounding like a carnival barker.

"We should probably wait for Jet and Meifa to get back with the supplies." Spike said as Ed walked up to them.

"What, you think we'd miss this after a build up like that?" Jet's voice said from down the hall. Looking in the direction it came from they saw Jet and Meifa, both of them loaded with medical supplies. Jet was carrying two sets of crutches and several knee braces under one arm along with several glass bottles and boxes under the other. Meifa carried even more boxes, mostly gauze, bandages and medical tape. "Between her yelling and her little intercom announcements it was a little hard to miss." He added, cutting off the question that was sure to come next.

"Even the extra bits and pieces part?" Spike asked with a smirk.

"Even the extra bits and pieces part." Jet confirmed with a smile of his own, one that was mirrored by Meifa.

"Well we shouldn't keep him waiting now should we?" Spike asked and went into the lab before anyone could answer. The others followed him in, Jet and Meifa setting the supplies on a separate table and sorting through them while the others went to the table John was laying on. Everyone watched Ed as she set up her computer on an empty section of the table, with John hanging his good leg over the side to give her more room.

"So how does it look?" John asked as Ed brought up a 3D composite of all the X-rays taken of his knee. In addition to the bone structure MPU had added in the major blood vessels and nerves to give them a more complete picture then just the X-rays on their own could.

"So long as there aren't any extra fingers or heads growing out of it not as bad as we thought." Jet answered as he brought over a couple of bottles and some boxes, putting them on the table next to Tomato. "Color looks normal though so I guess we don't have to talk Ed out of trying to keep it that way." He added with a dead serious voice. Looking around at the amused faces John sighed and turned to Ed.

"You just had to let everybody hear didn't you?" He asked in an accusing tone.

"Ed didn't haaaaave to tell everyone. Ed just thought Bebop Bebop wanted to know what Ed was doing." Ed pointed out in an innocent voice. "Not everyone heard Ed either. Ed is very sure no one on Mars heard anything at all!" She said triumphantly.

"I guess so long as you showed some restraint." John said flatly.

"Ed is glad that big brother John is so happy at Ed for being so well behaved!" Ed replied. Again John didn't know if she had actually missed the sarcasm or was just pretending to in order to mess with him so he deicide to let it drop and change the subject.

"So what's it really look like?" He asked Jet, who was studying the 3D image.

"Pretty good all things considered." Jet said as he made the image rotate. It was bad, no question about it. With the details the X-rays provided they saw that the bullet had struck the back of the tibia, shattering it, then deflected upwards where it destroyed part of the femur and the kneecap entirely before exiting out the front of his knee. Gruesome yes, but more importantly it wasn't fatal. "None of this stuff is near anything that'll kill you so that means we don't have to be overly cautious when we're patching you up." He explained pointing at the bone shards.

"Say that again?" John asked nervously, not liking the sound of that last sentence.

"We're not going to try to get your leg back in working condition John." Jet told him as he began opening the boxes he had brought over. "We just need to make sure it doesn't get any worse before you can see a real doctor. There's no need to try to be neat or overly precise, we're going for what works. Spike, you're helping. Start by taking off the tourniquet." He took a pair of surgical gloves and a mask out then tossed them over to Spike. Spike caught the items, looked at them suspiciously, then back up to Jet. "We can at least _try_ not to get it infected." He said in exasperation.

"If you say so." Spike said with a shrug as he put the gloves on. "You got those hairnets to?" He asked sarcastically. "Though I think we'd only need one." He added, glancing up at Jet's dome.

"Very funny." Jet growled, but didn't make any retort. "We're being cautious, not anal." He told him as he took out a second pair of gloves. Spike just shrugged again as he put on the mask and started untie the jacket around Johns knee. John hissed and tensed up but didn't say anything. "Faye, the examination rooms start three halls down to the right. Take Ed and Meifa, go to the first one and stay there, I'll be in to help you when we're done here." He ordered, putting on a pair of gloves.

"Hold on a second! How come I'm getting sent for a time out?!" Faye demanded. "And why do I have to take them with me?" She added, nodding at Ed and Meifa. "We've all seen that wound up close. They know how bad it is."

"I know, and that's not what I'm concerned about." Jet explained as he put his own mask into place and picked up one of the bottles. "I'm not going to trust any painkillers this place has, even with the quarantine protocol. They break down too easily." He said as he unscrewed the top of the bottle. "Antiseptics last longer, especially when they're in glass." He finished as he handed the bottle over to Spike as the latter dropped the blood soaked jacket to the ground. The label had a complex chemical label on it but everyone could clearly read one word that was part of the name. Alcohol. John's eyes widened to the point they seemed to be bugging out of his head and Faye was able to put two and two together.

"But…." She started to say.

"And I don't care how amusing _**you'd**_ find it I don't want the two of them hearing stuff like that!" Jet said with a tone of finality. "Spike, hold his legs down and pour when I tell you to. The rest of you, OUT!" He barked and the others moved to obey, heading towards the door. The last sight they saw was John, who looked like a dog that was being abandoned, roughly pushed back down by his shoulders onto the table and pinned by Jet. Faye closed the door behind them but Jet waited for a few seconds to see if she would try to reopen it. When there was no sound coming from the door Jet nodded to Spike and hoped the room was soundproof enough.

Out in the hallway the girls, plus Ein, were about twenty feet away from the lab when they first heard it. It was muffled and completely unintelligible but it was the distinct sound of someone screaming at the top of their lungs. All of them stopped and turned around in surprise at it being so loud but the one that had the biggest reaction was Ein. His ears were straight up in surprise and despite him not having a human face the look of shock he had was unmistakable.

"Now that's impressive." Faye commented as the muffled screaming continued without pausing for breath. Looking at the others she saw Ed was looking back in interest, possibly wondering what kind of neat words John was using, while Meifa shook her head sadly. "Don't worry about him, he can take it. He wouldn't have lasted this long if he couldn't." Faye assured her.

"I know." Meifa answered. "It just seems so pointless, for him to have to go through something like that. He didn't deserve it."

"No, he didn't." Faye agreed quietly. She actually thought it was kind of funny that John could be heard clear through the wall and this far away, but at the same time it didn't seem funny at all. If it was Spike she would probably be snickering, if not outright laughing. Now though, now she probably had a concerned face of her own. Wanting to get rid of that before the others noticed she looked at Ein to see how he was assessing the situation and saw the dog looking up at her in shock. "That bad?" She asked in amazement. Ein looked from the room up to her, then actually nodded his head yes. "Now that _is_ impressive." She said in honest approval with a small smile as she turned back around and started towards the exam rooms. The others fell in behind her, leaving John to continue using language his mother would definitely _**not**_ approve of.

* * *

A/N:

Sorry for putting such a short chapter in between two much larger ones but the original layout would have had the final chapter being over 30 pages long and I didn't want to make one chapter that went on and on, eventually giving people eye strain.


	15. Losses and Gains

Chapter 15: Loses and Gains

Twenty minutes later Faye's mood had decidedly gone south as she sat on one of the exam room's tables.

"Have I mentioned how much I hate doctor's offices?" She grumbled, looking out the door irritably. Meifa and Ed didn't answer. This was the fifth or sixth time she had asked that same question and she never acted like she expected an answer so they just let her grouse in peace. Meifa sat in a chair in the corner with Ein in her lap while Ed was searching through every drawer in the room, trying to find something to amuse herself with. After taking something out of one of them she crept over to a coat rack that was in the corner opposite of where Meifa and Ein were and behind Faye. The first two watched in curiosity as she grabbed a white doctor's coat from off the rack as silently as she could. Starting to put it on Ed put her finger to her grinning lips in a 'be quiet' sign to Meifa and Ein, both of whom started to smile slightly in anticipation at what was coming. After putting the coat on she pushed a small stool meant for the examining doctor to use if need be next to Faye on her uninjured side. Before she could turn and look at what the movement was Ed had already hopped up on the stool and was now looking a very startled looking Faye at eye level.

"No need to worry when Doctor Ed is on the case!" Ed proclaimed and rolled up the sleeves of the many sizes too large coat. "Ed has never lost a patient Ed couldn't find again!" She added as she took out a stethoscope she had found in one of the drawers.

"Ed…" Faye began, getting over being startled and not in the mood for any shenanigans right now.

"Quiet please, Doctor Ed must have absolute silence to find what is making Faye Faye such a big grouchy pants." Ed interrupted as she put the stethoscope on…in a way. She placed the two earpieces on her temples and turned the device upwards, making it look like she had some weird appendage growing from the top of her head. Ein looked very amused and Meifa was starting to giggle at the sight.

"Ed…!" Faye tried to warn but once again Ed paid her no mind, leaning in and putting the bell of the stethoscope on Faye's ear.

"Please say ahhh while Doctor Ed counts the thump-thumps Faye Faye makes." She said, putting her first two fingers on top of Faye's nose. The randomness of the move quieted Faye and left her staring cross-eyed at the fingers before turning towards Ed herself, who now had a very contemplative look on her face. "Tic-tock tic-tock tic-tock. Brrriiiiinnngg!" She sang in a childish voice in complete contrast to he look on her face. Meifa was now outright laughing, but softly so not to embarrass Faye any further, while Faye herself was giving Ed what the hacker would describe as a 'real big sourpuss face' in response to her antics. Before the face could give way to words or actions Ed took her fingers back and let go of the stethoscope, letting the bell dangle over her own nose. "The great Doctor Ed has finished the examination and knows what cure sourpuss Faye Faye needs!" She announced proudly.

"And just what would that be?" The 'sourpuss' in question asked flatly. Instead of answering right away Ed reached into the pocket of the coat and presented Faye with one red and one green lollipop she had found while rummaging through the drawers.

"Take two of these and call Ed in the morning." She told Faye with all the seriousness of a real doctor telling a patient to take their medicine. Faye looked from the lollipops Ed was offering, to Ed herself, then back to the candy. With a sigh she reached out and took the candy.

"Thanks." She grumbled, trying to make it sound like she was only taking it to get Ed to stop. It was the real reason but she also didn't want to hurt Ed's feelings either. Damn conscience was acting up again.

"Another miracle recovery!" Ed proclaimed. "And if Faye Faye ever turns into a giant sourpuss again just remember to call Doctor Ed who will get it fixed faster then you can say QUACK!" She added.

"Well it's a good thing you already live where she does Ed. Keeping her from being a sourpuss is a fulltime job." An amused voice said from the doorway. Looking over they saw a smirking Jet with a small armful of the supplies with the medical mask down around his neck. "Right now though John's calmed down a little so it would probably be a good idea to get an expert's opinion."

"The great Doctor Ed is always ready to use her medical smartness on anyone around!" Ed declared before jumping off the stool and running out the door, the giant lab coat billowing almost like a cape. Jet was barely able to get out of her way before she barreled him over and an instant later Ein ran after her, barking excitedly at what Ed might be doing next. After watching them both go Jet turned to Meifa and showed her one of the things he was carrying, a second bottle of the alcohol he had used on John. Meifa nodded in response and left without a word. Once she was gone Jet closed the door and faced his next challenge.

"Don't think it's good for me to be around kids either?" Faye asked in a tone that was almost boasting.

"Nope." Jet answered simply as he put everything down on the examination table behind Faye. "But that's not the only thing. We're going to need your help with something." He said as he started to undo Faye's gunbelt sling.

"What do you need _my_ help with?" Faye asked, wincing a bit as her injured arm suddenly came loose.

"Once John stopped yelling we had to make a decision about what to do after we've got everyone bandaged up." Jet explained. "It'll be dark in a couple of hours and I'm not going to risk flying the Bebop out of that canyon at night." Faye was about to interject about why they couldn't leave sooner when Jet continued. "It'll take almost that long to go get Kyle. We all agreed that going to the ship first and trying to sneak the body on later would be a bad idea. Meifa and especially Ed will want to be there when we bring him onboard and we don't want either of them seeing that."

"So you want me to be a distraction while you go and get him?" She asked.

"Both you and John." Jet answered as he put on a pair of gloves, put his mask back up and started to untie Faye's improvised jacket bandage. "But it wont be for that long. Spike and I are the only ones that'll be able to get him back to the ship so all you have to do is keep them occupied until we can get to the transit system, MPU promised he'll try to keep anyone from following us. Once we have Kyle we'll go to the surface, call the transport, put him on the Bebop, then come back here. Keep pressure on the front." He added as he took the jacket away and moved the part of Faye's shirt on top of the wound out of the way. Faye did as she was told and pressed the jacket against the front of her shoulder.

"I just hope it doesn't involve doing anything too stupid." Faye said in resignation. There was no way she'd let either of them see what Skynet had showed her. It made her shudder just to think about it, and she would probably be having nightmares about it for months. If there was on thing she didn't want it was to even think about what kind of effect it would have on the kids. "Not to sound ghoulish but how are you going to carry him all the way back to the Bebop?"

"This place has a morgue and that means there's got to be body bags to." Jet answered. Faye supposed she shouldn't be surprised at that since this place seemed to have everything else. So why not a morgue to go along with it? Any other musings she had about Black Mesa disappeared as she felt something that was cool to the touch and burning red hot at the same time move across the hole in her shoulder. She hissed and hunched forward slightly but stopped herself from pulling away from the pain completely. Whatever it was went over her shoulder a couple more times and the burning sensation slowly ebbed away.

"Well at least it was quick." Faye grunted as the pain finally faded.

"It'd better have been." Jet said as he tossed the bloodied piece of alcohol soaked gauze he used to wipe off the surface of the wound aside and picked up the bottle. "Considering that was just cleaning the skin." The moment of confusion Faye had at his statement gave him enough time to use his artificial arm to grab her good shoulder to push her forward so she was bent over, and pour the alcohol straight into the wound before she knew what had happened.

"*&&*%$%%# ^^$%##&^!" Faye shrieked as loudly as she could, struggling to sit back up. Jet ignored the curse and calmly held Faye in place no matter how hard she fought to move. "YOU %$# ^&%$^$**$#& #&#&&#^$^$^#& (#$*^ &#^$& &# *#&*$*$*&&#&&#! I'M GOING TO & *$*$&%*#($&$($($&*#& $& & AND #&#^#*(#&$^ &$(&#! THEN I'LL ($*$(^*^& & ^$&$* *#&!" She screamed, feeling like she was being impaled again and not being able to do anything about it thanks to Jet.

"Guess that means you won." Jet said out of nowhere. That managed to snap Faye out of her swearing tirade and look back at Jet.

"_**WON**_?!" She asked in an almost murderous tone through clenched teeth, almost panting. Now that she had stopped screaming he slowly pulled her back up while setting the bottle aside.

"Yep." Jet answered as he grabbed a large bandage along with more gauze and medical tape. "After hearing all the stuff John was able to come up with when we were dealing with his wounds Spike said that not even **you** could come up with anything more original. Looks like you proved him wrong because I think it's safe to say no one has ever heard anything quite like _that_ before." He added with a smirk Faye was almost able to hear underneath his mask.

"Happy to help." Faye replied crossly as she turned back around. The pain was mostly gone now and after that it was easy to ignore Jet as he applied gauze to the hole so hard that it almost felt like it went inside the wound before slapping the bandage on it and securing it with a liberal amount of tape. It felt like someone was now pushing on the wound with their hand but that was what Jet had been going for. With all the gauze and pressure caused by the tape any bleeding would be kept to a minimum.

"All right." Jet started as he moved all the supplies to stool Ed had been standing on. "Lie down." He ordered. Faye's response was to snap her head around and give Jet a death glare. "You can't take care of that one handed, so this is going to happen one way or another." He told her bluntly as he moved the stool to the other side of the table. Faye said nothing and continued to glare daggers at Jet. "I saw a couple of gurneys with restraints while I was walking around. Want me go get one?" He asked her with a glare of his own. Faye shot him another furious glare and a sneer but she laid down.

"If you even…" Faye began with a snarl.

"Yeah I'm going to try something funny while you're bleeding all over me." Jet deadpanned at the implied threat. "Just try not to move and we can get this over with." He added in an annoyed tone. Faye almost growled at him but she took the jacket off the second wound and made sure she was the one that moved the sleeve of her shirt at all. Jet repeated the process he had used for the first wound and aside from another creative use of every profanity she could think of Faye stayed in one place. She watched Jet's eyes the entire time and they never went anywhere but what he was working on so she decided _not_ to slap him once he finished. Once he got the last piece of tape in place and leaned back Faye quickly sat back up and pulled her shirt back onto her shoulder, being careful not to do anything to the bandaged areas.

"Thanks." She mumbled. She put a lot of sarcasm into it but Jet could tell she was grateful, but didn't want it showing.

"Don't mention it." Jet replied just as sarcastically as he took something from the stool and threw it in Faye's lap. "You'll be able to adjust it yourself so once you're done go back to X-ray, we're going to see what kind of damage Arnold has." He explained then turned and left. Giving silent thanks that Jet had given her some privacy Faye was able to get her arm into the sling and the strap over her head easily. Adjusting it took a few tries but she eventually got it to a point where her arm was properly supported. Again she looked like she was only one deep breath from spilling out all over the place but she supposed it couldn't be helped. If anything she should probably take some kind of pride in it, and she most likely would have if she actually had some choice in the matter. As she walked back to X-ray she did have to admit she did feel slightly better now. It was a wonder the effect that _**real**_ bandages and a sling had instead of a wadded up jacket and bulky gunbelt. She didn't feel good but at least she didn't feel like complete crap anymore either.

Entering the exam room she was greeted with a sight that made her loose her train of thought. John was still sitting on the table, his injured leg on the table itself with the other one hanging over the side. Standing next to him on the table was Ed, still wearing the doctor's coat and stethoscope with the bell of the latter placed on the top of John's head, with that same dead serious contemplative look on her face as before. Once she was inside everyone except for Ed turned towards her.

"I'm not interrupting anything am I?" She asked with a smirk on her face, looking at John. He responded with a 'what can you do' shrug before speaking.

"She says she hasn't found anything so I guess not." He told her. Before Faye could respond with a smart remark Ed beat her to it.

"Doctor Ed will not rest until the rattle rattle in big brother John's head is found!" She declared, making John roll his eyes. Faye's smirk widened but she noticed something. John's face no longer had a patchwork of bandages running across it but a single long double folded piece of gauze held in place by two long pieces of tape running along the sides with many smaller pieces of across it. He was wearing a neoprene knee brace, which covered up any bandaging, as well as a cage like metal knee brace to make sure he wouldn't be able to flex the joint at all. On the ground were what looked like a bloody torn up white shirt and tissue paper. Faye guessed that must have been what he used for the cut on his chest and that he now had a similar, proper, bandaging job there. Leaning on the table next to him were a pair of crutches, the only way he'd be able to get around for a while. Like Faye he didn't look good but he looked better then he had before. Even Spike had taken the opportunity and the lower portions of his arms were bandaged as well.

"Now that everyone's here." Jet spoke up, getting everyone's attention. "We've got something important to do." He nodded towards Tomato, still sitting on the end of the table by John's foot. All of them gathered around the computer's screen silently and once everybody had a good view Jet spoke again. "Let's see it." Like before with John's knee MPU created a 3D image of Arnold's skull based on combining the information of all the X-ray's that had been taken. The moment it came up you could have almost feel everyone's spirit's sink, even the ones that had expected this.

It couldn't have been any worse. The dented portion of the skull had weakened enough so that the heat of the rocket engine was enough to melt it. The molten metal had moved down and into the skull's internal workings, burning everything to a cinder or consuming it in the flow of slag.

"There's…nothing left is there?" John asked.

"No there is not." MPU answered, sounding solemn that he couldn't give them good news. "All circuits have been irreparably damaged and cannot be removed. I am sorry." The adults turned towards the two that would be most effected by the news. Meifa and Ed both looked at the screen with a sense of loss but it was oddly tempered. All of them had known this was the most likely outcome and it looked like the girls had prepared themselves if that turned out to the case. None of the adults wanted to press the two about what they were thinking so there was an awkward silence for several minutes.

"So what do we do?" Spike finally asked.

"The least we can do is give him a decent sendoff." John spoke up. "I don't know just what he would have wanted done, if anything, but he deserves to have a proper burial."

"But where would that be?" Jet asked. "Here? At Doohan's place? Take him into space and bury him at sea?"

"I think that's her decision, not ours." John answered, looking over to Ed. As Arnold's 'creator' and the only one that regarded him as a person, and an equal, from day one her word carried the most weight in this situation. Ed seemed to understand that and seemed to have a truly thoughtful look this time, even taking off the stethoscope and doctor's jacket. After a few moments of thought she answered.

"Ed thinks Arnold person should stay where he did his bravest thing." She told them in as serious a voice as any of them had ever heard her use. "Arnold person wouldn't get lost in luggage that way, less people around to bother him to." She added with a small smile. The second sentence sounded like Ed going back to being Ed but they could tell what she really meant. She didn't want anyone disturbing Arnold's remains, and way out here on a planet that seemed to be trying its best to kill you was the perfect place.

"That makes it final then." John said as he grabbed his crutches and swung his injured leg off the table. "Let's find a way outside and get started." There were no complaints from anyone else. They knew that something like this wasn't something to dwell on and the sooner it was done the better. It didn't take them long to find an exit. The medical wing was built on the surface and had a large almost greenhouse like glass encased foyer with faded but still intact couches and chairs facing outward to give recovering patients, or anyone who wanted to relax, a spectacular view of the sun going down over the desert horizon. When they got there the sun was still up but it was getting noticeably lower, proving Jet was right about not being able to retrieve Kyle and make it back to the Bebop before dark.

Forgoing digging an actual hole Ed, being assisted by Ein, fashioned out a small trench before placing Arnold's skull in it then piling rocks onto it and around it. The others, even Ein, then helped by bringing over more rocks until they had the skull and trench completely covered. The job finished everyone stood there looking at the makeshift grave in silence, each waiting for someone else to do something.

"So…do we say anything?" John finally asked. He really didn't know how one would eulogize a robot, even one like Arnold.

"Stuff like this really isn't my thing." Spike replied. Sure he knew about the sense of loss death could cause, but there was also nothing you could do about it and talking about the dead person like this never really seemed to help anyway.

"Mine either." Faye added. Unlike Spike she didn't even know if she _had_ lost anyone before her memory loss, let alone having any experience in dealing with it. Being as guarded as she was with her feelings she probably wouldn't have said anything to begin with.

"As weird as it is we need to say something." Jet told the other three before starting to direct his words towards the grave. "I guess the best thing to do would be to say thanks. You saved all of us more then once since we first met you, and a lot more lives then we can probably count." As Jet spoke the others began to think back at his words. Going to that remote town to defend it against Skynet's second attack, helping to repel the T-800s that had been sent aboard the Bebop to kill Ed, which in turn enabled her to help defeat Skynet at the Battle of Cheyenne Mountain. Finally by sealing himself inside the silo he had enabled all of them to escape and stop Skynet from committing the killing spree he had promised to Faye once he had taken care of Ed. He had done more good in a couple months of being 'alive' then most people could in a lifetime. "You probably wouldn't think much about praise or recognition for what you did, but it should at least be acknowledged. All of us wouldn't be here right now otherwise so we owe you that much, and the guarantee that you'll be remembered." The adults remained silent and motionless after Jet had finished, figuring that would be the best summarization any of them would be able to come up with. Looking to the two kids and dog they saw Meifa had her hands together and her eyes closed, praying, while Ein had his head down respectfully and looking at the grave, as if giving a silent speech himself. Only Ed chose to put her thoughts into words.

"Ed is sad that Arnold person is gone and is going to miss him, but Ed is proud he managed to do so many good deeds and not be like every other machine man. Ed is also happy that Arnold person found his own purpose and even forgives Arnold person for making himself go BOOM to help Ed and the rest of Ed's friends." They were simple and honest statements, ones they expected from Ed. Now that the hacker had said her piece everyone's attention shifted to Ein and Meifa. After a few more moments the data dog raised his head while Meifa opened her eyes and lowered her hands before turning towards the others.

"Praying for the soul of someone like Arnold wasn't something I ever expected to do." She confessed. "It should feel odd, even wrong, but it doesn't."

"That's because you accepted him as being more then just a machine." Jet said with a slight smile. "You just said 'someone' and back on the transit car you called him a person while Skynet was a thing." Meifa gave a smile of her own before she responded.

"It just doesn't seem right to think of him that way after all he did." She stated as they made their way back to the foyer. "It would be like ignoring everyone who died fighting Skynet." She added as they entered the building. The smile on her face vanished and it looked like she had just realized something. Jet noticed it and hoped that it wasn't what he thought it was. "Jet…." She seemed hesitant to speak about it but found her voice. "…what about Kyle?" She asked. Everyone stopped and turned towards them. It was what Jet thought it was. She knew as well as he did that they couldn't leave Kyle where he was and their refusal at letting her see what had happened told her that getting him would be a gruesome task.

"Spike and I are going to go get him and take him to the Bebop." He told her. He wasn't about to lie to her. Yes he had intended to pull a fast one on both her and Ed but he wouldn't have _lied_ about it. "Everyone else is going to stay in this part of the base, no exceptions." He added sternly, looking at Ed. "That means we'll be spending the night here but the recovery room has plenty of beds while the food and water in the kitchen should still be good if we need it. Do whatever you want, _**SAFELY**_…" He made sure to emphasize the last word while still looking at Ed. "…until we get back. Everyone understand?" He asked. He knew he could count on John and Faye to be with him and Meifa nodded an affirmative. That only left…

"Ed will have all sorts of neat and swooky toys to keep Ed busy!" She said excitedly. She knew that whatever had happened to big brother Kyle had really upset everyone, even Faye Faye, and they didn't want that to happen to her. They were afraid to let her see him and she didn't want to make all of them upset again by trying to so she might as well fool around with all the complex and possibly fragile equipment in this place and have some fun.

"Then let's get this over with." Jet replied and motioned for Spike to follow him. After the two of them had left Ed spoke up.

"Now it's time for Ed to perform all sorts of mechanical mischief and mayhem for one and all!" She announced and began walking in an almost random direction. "Please form one line behind Ed and no pushing. Plenty of fun for everyone!" She promised.

"Not me." Faye said, making Ed stop in her tracks and everyone to turn and look at her. "I've had enough excitement for one day. If anyone wants me I'll be right here." She said as she sat down on one of the faded but still surprisingly comfortable couches facing outside, using the arm of the furniture to rest her wounded limb on.

"Uh oh! Looks like Faye Faye is turning back into a sourpuss. That means Doctor Ed needs to find a new cure!" Faye slumped slightly and grumbled something unintelligible.

"There'll be time enough for that later Ed." John intervened. "Right now though you said something about mischief and mayhem?" He asked, sounding like he was eager to see what she had in mind. He kind of was since she had never actually seen her go all out when left to her own devices and if what she had done to Skynet in Cheyenne was any indication it would definitely be amusing. Besides, if Faye really wanted to be left alone for a while she deserved it.

"Mischief and mayhem and all sorts of fun!" Ed answered. "All of Ed's specialties on display for the price of one!" She sang as she led the way followed closely by the others, all of them making sure to walk slowly to accommodate John's slower pace on his crutches. Once she heard them get out of earshot Faye let out a sigh, relieved to get some peace and quiet after everything that had happened. She stared out the now tinted windows as the sun go closer and closer to the horizon, lost in her own thoughts.

Much later in a deeper part of the base another sort of peace and quiet was in effect, only this one was born out the fact that neither Spike nor Jet saw anything worth talking about with what they were about to do. The entire long transit ride had been silent, and now after walking for almost twenty minutes the silence was beginning to get to Spike.

"So you ever work cleanup?" He asked, deciding to keep any conversation partially on the task at hand.

"No." Jet answered without looking at him. "I was around for a lot of it but I never actually had to do anything. You?"

"I just made sure the bodies were there. Getting rid of them was somebody else's problem." Spike answered in a nonchalant tone. "I always thought guys like that were kind of weird though. Wanting to come to work everyday and do your job when it's something like this? Someone who actually wants to hang around dead bodies can't have all their poker chips."

"They always did seem a little…off to me." Jet agreed. They walked in silence for ten more minutes, following the map MPU had transferred to Spike's communicator. He had been able to reestablish contact with Kyle's and it hadn't moved since it's last transmission so it would lead them right to him. They still had a ways to go so Jet decided to keep their minds off what they would have to do for a few more minutes.

"So what did you hear?" He asked Spike out of nowhere.

"Hear what?" Was Spike's response, not having any idea what Jet was talking about.

"When Faye almost punched out John a second time you said you were able to hear something we hadn't. Three words that showed that John wasn't going to be on Faye's shit list, which I still find hard to believe I might add."

"Oh that." Spike replied with a smirk spreading across his face. "You'll get it once you hear them." He added before answering the question. "I managed to hear 'Bowlingballs' and 'Uncontrollable tilting'." Jet looked over at Spike in amazement. In regards to carrying Faye John had said something like _that_, not to mention all the other things they _couldn't_ hear? As the realization hit him Jet actually let out a laugh.

"I see what you mean. If we ever said something like that she'd try and shoot us." He said then paused as he realized something. "Well if that doesn't prove she likes him nothing will." He added with a second laugh. Faye never took jokes at her expense very well, dirty jokes especially. Considering just what kind of things John must have told her she had then opted only to try and give him a broken nose? The implications were just too funny not to be amused by them.

The amusement didn't last very long as the two of them turned down a particularly long tunnel, one that ended in a collapsed roof. Looking towards one side they saw Kyle, still hanging motionless on the wall. Walking up to the body they got a good look at just what Skynet had done to him, and to neither of their surprise it was even worse up close then through the pictures they had seen. He had long since stopped bleeding but his wounds, his face especially, were still very bloody and raw.

"Your call on how to do this." Spike told Jet as the latter unfolded the body bag they got at the morgue onto the floor and opened it. That task done he took a good look at where the rebar had been placed before making his decision.

"Hold onto his head while I get the top two. We'll work our way out from there." He said, reaching into his back pocket, brining out two pairs of medical gloves and tossing one to Spike. "Always pays to be prepared." He said simply. Spike put the gloves on without any remarks. He knew that they would make it easier for them to handle the body.

Kyle wasn't that far off the ground so they were both able to reach his head, Spike holding it steady while after closing Kyle's eyes Jet reached up farther and grabbed the spear of rebar in the forehead with both hands. Subtlety wasn't an option here so Jet simply yanked back on the metal as hard as he could. It took a couple of tries but he was able to finally yank it clear from the wall. As hardened as the two of them were they both still flinched away when the rebar came free, not wanting to think about the sound it made, or what might still be on it. Jet quickly tossed the first piece aside and grabbed the second at Kyle's throat, forcing himself to look at the damaged neck and not the large hole that was in the man's forehead. It took roughly the same amount of force to get the second one out as the first.

"Let his head go." Jet told Spike as he threw the second piece away. "Slowly." Spike nodded in understanding. With all the damage done to the neck there was a real possibility that it might not support the weight of Kyle's head. Spike began slowly lowering Kyle's head until it was resting on his chest, looking down. He then carefully took his hands away and to both of their relief it didn't move after that. "Next we take out these three." He explained pointing to three specific pieces.

"You want to try to slide him off after that?" Spike asked, getting a good idea of what Jet was planning to do. The three he had pointed to were the pieces highest in Kyle's chest. Leaving the other two would support the body's weight but there would be less resistance if they tried to pull the body itself off.

"Yeah." Was Jet's only answer. The two went to work and it wasn't long before they had the three pieces removed and ready for what was sure to be the worst part of this thing. "On three." Jet said as he and Spike reached up, each grabbing one side of Kyle's belt and using their other hand to grab him by his vest underneath his arms. Both of them braced a foot against the wall, knowing this was not going to be easy, in any sense of the word. "One…two…three!" He said and both of them pulled back as hard as they could. It took more force then they thought it would but slowly and steadily Kyle's body slid down the rebar and after a several moments of furious pulling he finally came loose. They stumbled slightly but were able to keep their balance and carried Kyle over to the body bag, laying him on his back. As he zipped it closed Jet couldn't help but feel what a waste it was, someone like Kyle dieing like this while the corrupt brass lived on. If there was any sort of offset it was that Kyle had proven that he was a better man then any of them would ever become.

"Well…let's get going." Spike stated simply as he grabbed the handles located by Kyle's feet. Jet said nothing and grabbed the second set of handles near the head. With a slight grunt in effort the two of them lifted the body bag and began their long walk to the surface.

Faye didn't know how long she had been staring out the window watching the sun go down. All she knew was it was now halfway over the horizon, covering the sky and desert with an interesting assortment of reds, oranges and purples. It was very nice to look at and in a way kind of relaxing. She could see why they had made this little setup to being with, relaxed and quiet patients were less troublesome ones. She should have known better then to have a thought like that because less then a second after she did she heard a clacking sound coming towards her from behind. She recognized it as John's crutches and for a moment she thought he was going to being Ed back here to help 'cure her of being a sourpuss' but she noticed that then only sound she heard was of the crutches.

"Nice view." She heard John comment from behind her. Turning around slightly she saw him moving towards the opposite end of the couch she was on. "Mind if I sit down?" He asked. Faye gave him an almost bored shrug and motioned towards the empty seat before turning back to look out the window. "Thanks." She heard him say before setting his crutches on the ground with a clatter along with an odd sounding clunk. He then plopped himself onto the cushion with a sigh, happy to be off his feet for a moment.

"So Jet and Spike are back?" Faye asked, already knowing the answer to her own question. John wouldn't be here without Ed, Meifa, and Ein unless someone else was here to watch them. "Guess time flies when you're waiting." She remarked, watching the sun slide a little bit lower.

"Kind of." John replied. "Jet said that if it had taken them twenty more minutes they wouldn't have been able to make it back to the ship. That wouldn't have been pleasant." Faye didn't say anything but silently agreed with him. They would have had to bring the body here to put it in the morgue, then carry it out to the Bebop in full view of everyone. Faye had accepted death as being a part of the profession but she really didn't want to be reminded of it anymore today.

"So what did you and the kids do on your little field trip?" Faye asked, wanting to get her mind away from thoughts like that.

"Found out some very interesting things." John answered. There was silence for a few moments as he didn't elaborate. Starting to become annoyed Faye turned to John and found him still looking out the window. After a beat he turned to look at here. "What?" He asked, sounding for all the world like he didn't know what she was giving him such a dirty look for.

"Such as…." She prompted, trying to sound like she just wasn't going to let him get away with teasing her then actually wanting to know.

"Well for starters did you know that surgical robots can make some pretty good shadow puppets?" He asked as if that were asking of they thought red made a nice car color. She looked at him dumbfounded for a moment before he continued. "How about if you mix the right medicines and common chemicals you get something that smells like pancakes, gives off purple smoke and eats right through the floor?" Now Faye was looking at him like he was either lying or crazy. "Or that it's possible to reprogram a heart monitor to actually yodel?" Faye gave a slight hiccup of laughter at the absurdity of that one despite her best efforts not to.

"All right I'm calling bullshit on the last one. Not even Ed could do something like that." Faye protested, trying very hard not to start laughing at the thought of a yodeling heart monitor.

"After all the stuff we've seen her do you think something like that would be hard for Ed?" John asked seriously. Faye found herself unable to answer. Between her genius and outright insanity Ed did seem capable of doing almost anything. "Spike and Jet got back before she could but the last thing she was about to show us how to get stuff you'd never think could explode in a microwave to go, and I quote her, 'KABLOOIE!'" He said the last word in a high pitched voice and threw his arms up like a child imitating an explosion. This time Faye couldn't help herself and actually started laughing. John's smiled broadly at her reaction, happy to see the improvement of her mood.

"And what's with that look?" Faye suddenly asked accusingly when she noticed his new expression. "Oh I see. Getting me to laugh letting you see something you like is it?" She asked, switching gears to a still miffed but almost seductive tone, then moving her slung arm slightly so she gave off a much more noticeable 'bounce' then she would have just laughing.

"WHAT?! NO!" John protested, his face turning bright red before he looked away from the 'show' in embarrassment. "It was just nice to see you actually smile after all the shit you've been through!" He told her. Faye had no doubt about the honesty of that statement. Even though she could tell he _wanted_ to look he didn't out of decency. She didn't find it surprising he wanted to look though, he was a normal male after all. In fact for the first time in a long while she actually found it, somewhat embarrassingly, very flattering that someone wanted to look at her since it wasn't just as a set of boobs and a pretty face but as a whole person. The fact that he was truly glad to see her feeling better while completely ignoring his own, much more serious condition was even more flattering. It was kind of sweet actually, but she'd be damned if she was ever going to even _imply_ she thought something like that to anyone.

"Well since it was in the name of chivalry I guess it can be forgiven this once. Just make sure it _**doesn't**_ happen again. I might just get the impression that you're doing it just so you can sneak peeks and ogle me every chance you get!" She warned him in an angry, very icy tone. She saw his shoulders hunch slightly at the rebuke and he didn't turn back to look at her, looking stung that she would think of him like that. "Then again it would prove that you have excellent taste." She added teasingly. John sat up straight and turned towards her, looking halfway between amused and angry that she had successfully made him the butt of a joke like that.

"You can be a real bitch you know that?" He asked after a moment, though with a teasing tone of his own.

"That's the Faye we all know and love." Faye quoted him, never losing the triumphant smile on her face.

"Yeah, we love you for pulling stuff like that." He responded sarcastically. Figuring saying stuff like that would be useless, especially since the look on Faye's face more or less said 'And don't expect me to stop acting like a bitch, it's too much fun.' he decided to play up to her other instincts. "Well I was going to share my discovery with you but after that I don't think you deserve it." He added, sounding like he was seriously debating whether or not to share his surprise with her and that it was something she really, really would have wanted to see.

"Just what makes you think you found something here that I'd be interested in?" Faye asked, her curiosity evident but wary that it might be some kind of practical joke he and Ed cooked up. The fact he would be interested in payback for her own little joke made her even more cautious.

"Well it isn't money." John explained as he reached over the side of the couch to where he put his crutches down. "Any leftover in this place wouldn't be Woolongs so they'd be worthless, and everything here is too outdated to sell at a good price. So that left the final option of the three things you get your hands on, if Spike and Jet are telling the truth." Faye narrowed her eyes slightly but John ignored it. "Besides, it is something you asked for earlier so I figured you'd want it." Faye raised an eyebrow, not recalling asking for anything, and watched as he lifted up a fair sized amber colored bottle and held it out so she could see it. "Now since you weren't playing nice…" He didn't get a chance to finish as Faye, with speed he wouldn't have expected with her injuries, leaned over and snatched the bottle out of his hand before he could respond. He looked at is empty hand in surprise for a moment before looking over at Faye, who was studying the bottle's label.

"Cognac? Here?" She said to herself, not believing a dump like this would have such high-class booze. "Bottled in 1998…distilled in 1962!" She exclaimed as she read the label then looked over at John. "Where did you find this?" She asked a split second before she decided she didn't care, placing the bottle between her legs and using her one good hand to work on the top.

"In one of the offices when we were poking around." John explained, trying not to laugh at the sight of Faye opening the bottle with the enthusiasm of a kid opening their Christmas presents. "Inside a box labeled 'Open only in case of emergency.'" He added, this time chuckling.

"Good to see someone had the brains to think ahead." Faye remarked as she finally got the top off. "And just who do we have to thank for this?" She asked, picking up the bottle.

"Your little gift today comes courtesy of one W. Bennet." John answered.

"Well thank you Mr. W. Bennet." Faye said, raising the bottle in a mock toast before taking a long pull from it. After finishing her drink she took another appreciative look at the bottle. "They sure knew how to make em back then." She remarked before offering the bottle to John. He took it without any protest, even though he had stated it was meant to be solely for her. Taking a long drink himself he found that Faye was right. It was incredibly smooth and actually tasted pretty good.

"You know you could have made a small fortune off of this." He told her as he handed the bottle back.

"Win some lose some." Was Faye's only response before taking a second drink and handing it back to John. It was passed back and forth a few more times as they sat there watching the sun disappear over the horizon. "So what happens to you now?" Faye asked once the stars and shattered moon started to come into view.

"Don't really know." John answered truthfully. "Between the men Skynet killed and what he did to me half of my unit is gone and I'm not sure if they'll let us keep operating. I just hope the guys have enough time to destroy the plasma rifles if they do decide to disband it. Of course I got other problems to deal with first." He glanced down at his knee. "No matter what I do I'm going to be laid up for a while, there's no way they'd put me in the field like this."

"So you're just going to mope about it?" Faye challenged in an almost angry manner. After surviving all of this she was **not** going to let him descend into self-pity.

"That wouldn't accomplish anything." John answered, to Faye's relief, as he took another drink. "I guess I can use the time to visit mom and uncle Bob. There's a lot of catching up we have to do." He said as he passed the bottle back to Faye. After a moment of thought he turned towards her. "You guys should come up and see them to. All of you, Meifa to if she wants to go." Faye paused in bringing the bottle up to her lips and looked over at John in surprise. An invitation like that wasn't something she had expected to hear.

"I thought that the Red Dragons put the two of them in that expensive resort so they didn't talk to anyone." Faye stated. Though that was true she used it to cover up her own feeling of unease at meeting John's family.

"Yeah, well there's a thing about my family." He said with a proud grin. "We don't really like people telling us what to do when we don't like it." Now Faye was looking at him with interest. This had to be good. "The Dragons got a lot more lenient on its communication and visitation policy after they sent a couple of thugs over to remind them after mom made a call to her family she 'wasn't supposed to.' Mom broke one guy's jaw clean in half and uncle Bob tossed the second through a window into a dumpster." Faye snickered, it had been a good one alright. "For some reason there hasn't been any problems since then." He added with a casual shrug. Faye laughed again, if nothing else John's family was certainly interesting. But that little story also gave her a way out.

"I'd better not go then if I don't want to be tossed in a dumpster." She said in a humorous tone. John's response was to give her a funny, slightly confused look. "Someone like me hanging around their son and nephew? I'm not exactly the girl next-door you know." She reminded him.

"Pffft. Neither was mom when dad first met her." John snorted. " 'The girl next-door is boring. It's the wild one down the street that you should go after.'" He said, sounding like he was reciting it from memory. Now it was Faye's turn to give him a funny look. "Uncle Bob said that's how dad used to reply whenever someone asked him why a cop would want to marry someone like mom." The corners of Faye's mouth quirked upwards slightly. "Come on they'll love you guys. After hearing so much about you they practically know you already." He said going back to his sales pitch. Faye knew about that from finding out about Ed's call to them before. Seeing that he wasn't going to give up she finally answered.

"Fine, we'll go visit when we have the time." She said, doing her best to sound frustrated as well as final with her answer.

"Good to know you speak for everyone." John remarked, smiling. Faye gave him a glare but took another drink of the Cognac so she wouldn't have to answer. They sat there for the rest of the night, slowly draining the bottle but neither one of them feeling like they were getting particularly drunk, while actually having civil conversations about things like movies.

Unnoticed by either of them a Welsh Corgi was standing around the corner in a hallway not that far behind them, watching and listening to the conversation with interest. Ein had been very careful that he hadn't been seen or heard while sneaking up on them. He had gone off on his own but knew he'd be tapped as playing the spy to see just what would happen if Faye and John were left alone. He normally would have respected their right to privacy but he was very curious to see what would happen between the two of them in light of the past couple of days. The conversation had been teasing for the most part but not at all confrontational. Once the alcohol had come out he expected it to get more emotional but things had stayed calm. Still, there were some very telling things he noticed. When Faye had asked John what would happen to him now that this little adventure was over she had done her best to make it sound like she was just curious. Ein couldn't be sure about John but he had easily heard the worry in her voice about what might come next. She was honestly concerned about what might happen to John, and he knew enough about humans to know that in this case it was deeper then normal worry. Then there was the attempt to get out of the invitation John had given. Again he couldn't speak for the human (not in English anyway) but he could see the reasons for Faye's reluctance. She was actually worried about what John's mother and uncle would think of her, and what effect those thoughts would have on John. She had never given two shits about what anybody thought about her since Ein had known her and if she was now there was definitely something deeper behind it.

John's efforts had been just as clandestine in attempt but also just as obvious to Ein as Faye's had been. His effort to make Faye smile at Ed's antics, all of which he had witnessed himself, and the modesty at her…expressive teasing showed just how much he thought of her. Yes he might have liked her looks but that was only a very small part of it. He liked her far more as a person and his concern for her over his own troubles, and other things if that blush was any indication, showed that. The second and most obvious was when he had extended his invitation for the Bebop crew to come and visit. Ein didn't need to have his super intellect to see that while he honestly wanted all of them to come it was Faye's answer he was most concerned about. When she had expressed reluctance he could see the shift in John's body language and tone of voice that showed just how worried he was at the thought of her rejecting the offer. Not the others, just her. When he pressed on and she agreed he sounded relieved when he spoke again. He honestly didn't know how the two humans weren't picking this stuff up themselves while they talked to each other. Giving it some thought he realized that perhaps they were, and they just didn't want to acknowledge it to the outside world, even when they thought nobody was looking. Then again it could just be the Cognac was making them drunker then they thought and they were truly oblivious. Either way once the conversation turned to more mundane things Ein knew he wouldn't hear anything else of use so he turned and walked back to the recovery ward to report in.

The recovery ward itself shared the same dull setup as any other hospital, beds on both sides with basic monitoring next to each ready for use and a small lane bisecting the room. Meifa and Ed currently sat on adjoining beds, Ed having her computer on and showing Jet and Spike, who stood in the lane near them, just how to make a floor polisher reach speeds some racer car drivers would be jealous of. Off to the side they heard the sound of a door being pushed opened and all looked to see Ein walk in.

"So are they hitting it off?" Spike asked with a smirk as the dog made his way over to Meifa's bed and hopped up onto it. Ignoring the question for a moment Ein lied down and made himself comfortable before giving an energetic bark. Everyone could tell it was an affirmative. It had been Spike that had noticed Ein following John when he left to find Faye after they had gotten back, following at a distance that wouldn't let John hear him. Ed had begun to call Ein back but Spike had stopped her, saying that Ein was going to go find out some interesting things people couldn't. They wouldn't be able to learn everything from a dog of course but they would be able to get a few good details.

"They're not going to end up almost killing each other are they?" Jet asked next, only partially joking. After seeing how those two acted when they were being 'nice' to each other he wouldn't put it past them to end up needing more medical attention later. Ein tilted his head slightly as if to say 'maybe' and Jet decided that was good enough. If they weren't acting rough now they probably wouldn't be. "They're drinking the booze aren't they?" He put in as an afterthought. Ein gave a snort that was easily interpreted as a 'What do you think?' and Jet sighed. Drinking alcohol when you're seriously wounded was never a good idea but that didn't seem to stop the two dopes that were now doing it.

"Hitting it off and getting drunk." Spike said with a small laugh. "I think we're going to need to assign a chaperone, with a bucket of cold water." Jet groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose, more at Spike making a joke like that in front of the kids then the information that John and Faye were drinking. But he had to remind himself that the two of them probably had heard things like that before and knew exactly what they meant. The gigantic grin on Ed's face accompanied by Meifa's smaller and oddly approving smile confirmed it.

"They can handle themselves just fine." Jet finally said, not trying to flinch at the innuendos he had inadvertently made with _that_ statement. Spike on the other hand had no problem snickering despite the glare Jet sent him. "It's their business so we're going to leave them alone. We'll deal with it in the morning. Until then, everyone try to get comfortable as you can and get some sleep. We'll be leaving as soon as it's light enough to fly the Bebop out safely." No one verbally responded but Ed hopped off of bed she was sitting on and walked out the door without a word or looking back. The others watched her go, with various levels of confusion before exchanging glances with each other.

"Do we even…?" Spike began.

"Probably better that we don't know." Jet answered. Spike shrugged and made his way over to an empty bed while Meifa laid down with Ein curling up next to her. Jet walked over to the light switch and turned it off before taking one of the beds closest to the doors. Despite the unfamiliar surrounding and the day of hell all of them had been put thorough in less than an hour all of them were asleep, their dreams thankfully not plagued by nightmares. Meanwhile Ed had taken Jet's advice to heart, making herself comfortable and was now sleeping soundly, inside the base's MRI machine.

Neither Faye nor John even remembered falling asleep, let alone how long they were out. The only thing both knew that was one minute they were both looking out at the stars talking and the next there was this impossibly bright flash that seemed to blind both of them, even though they both had their eyes closed.

"Nnnggg." John groaned as he put his arms up to block the source of the light, even though it had already faded. Next to him Faye let out a similar sounding groan and matched John's movement with her good arm.

"And that Ed is how you take the perfect blackmail picture." They heard Spike's voice cheerfully thunder through their ears, both instantly becoming aware that it felt like someone was trying to hammer their way out of their skulls from the inside. "I think we'll call it 'Rummies in repose'." He added, giving a fresh barrage of earsplitting noise to his two hung over teammates.

"Don't yell…! UHHHNNN!" Faye started to snap but needed to stop as her own voice sounded like it came shrieking out of a megaphone next to her head at full blast. She grabbed her forehead with her good hand while John grabbed both of his ears and let out an identical groan, the sound of Faye's partial outburst making the drums in his own head double in tempo, and triple in volume.

"What the…" John tried to say quietly but found even that wasn't soft enough, making the drums get even louder, so he just decided to open his eyes and see what the hell was going on. Slowly he managed to get them open, but for some reason everything looked really bright and extremely fuzzy. He could make out several people standing in front of him but other then formless blobs he couldn't make out any details.

"Will someone adjust the reception?" He heard Faye groan. Looking next to him she saw Faye had opened her eyes as well. He could see her eyes were open and trying to look at the people in front of them but she had as much luck as he did so she decided to look at him instead. Being less then three feet away made Faye's face easier to see and what John saw were a pair of bleary, slightly bloodshot eyes with an expression that screamed 'out of it' written all over her face topped off with a mussed up head of purple hair. Across from him Faye was getting a good look at an equally disheveled, spaced out looking John, complete with dull bloodshot eyes. Both of them slowly realized what all this meant and her brain was the slightly less sluggish one. "We're smashed." She told him dully, making sound like both a question and a statement at the same time.

"Well what did you expect?" Jet's voice boomed, thankfully not as loud as Spike's, but still enough to make them flinch. "That wasn't exactly tea you two were drinking." After cringing for a moment at the noise John and Faye looked down at the center cushion of the couch where the bottle of Cognac was laying. The completely empty bottle of Cognac. Both looked at the empty container slightly wide-eyed. It was a good sized bottle that was probably meant for more then two people yet they had managed to finish it off in the space of several hours.

"Should we be proud of this?" John asked Faye, starting to get his wits back but still sounding like he didn't know which answer would be the positive one.

"Only if we don't throw up." Faye moaned in response.

"Good thing you didn't." Spike interjected. "That would have made a lousy picture." Both of them flinched at the hangover induced volume jump then slowly, very slowly, began to process just what that statement meant. Looking back in front of them John and Faye's eyes had cleared enough to make out certain details. Ed was standing at the very front of the group, Tomato held in front of her, while Spike and Jet stood to the sides. Behind them Meifa stood with Ein at her feet. Jet was frowning at them while Spike and Ed were grinning almost evilly. Ein was smiling from ear to ear as well but it was hard to tell if it was just because he found what he saw funny or from the grief that the two were getting for it. Meifa's smile was even more confusing. It was one that showed she was genuinely happy, and both of them knew it wouldn't be at the sight of them in this state. Then what could she actually be happy about?

"He said blackmail at the beginning." John groaned as he rubbed his eyes with the heels of his palms to clear his vision better. He sounded unsure of himself, like he was trying to get a conformation from Faye and not trusting his own stupor-addled memory.

"He'll do it to." Faye sighed, looking down at the floor and making John's hope he had been hearing things evaporate.

"Well maybe I will." Spike said, making the 'maybe' sound like 'Why would you think I wouldn't?', which made them worry. "But it is technically Ed's picture so she has the final say if it goes onto the net." He continued, proving that indeed things could still get far worse for them. The two turned to Ed with the looks of someone pleading not to be executed.

"Ed thinks Faye Faye and big brother John made a very good picture and everyone would love to see it." She stated, ignoring the horrified looks from Faye and John. Before either of them could start to protest, or in more likelihood beg, Ed kept on going. "But Ed also thinks picture people want to see how good they look before everyone else does so Ed will give Faye Faye and big brother John an extra special preview!" she announced loudly, causing the two on the couch to flinch again, closing their eyes and covering their ears. What their alcohol sharpened hearing also allowed them to hear was a soft beep coming from Tomato, telling them that Ed was now displaying the picture for them. The two looked at each other's faces in anxiousness for a moment, then sighed as they realized there was no getting around this and turned to look at the picture, prepared for the worst…and got a surprise when they actually saw it.

They had expected to see one of any number of embarrassing things in the photo, ranging from idiotic posing and pranks from Ed and Spike to the sight of them having fallen asleep in awkward positions. It would have been embarrassing enough if they had just fallen asleep leaning against each other, that would have provided no end to the jokes they would have heard. It would have been worse if John had ended up doing something like ending up with his face lying on Faye's chest, or on the flipside if Faye had fallen asleep and ended up lying facedown on John's lap. If either of those things had happened literally neither of them would have ever heard the end of it. Compared to what the picture could have been what was actually there was kind of…tame.

Of course it wasn't flattering by any means either. Both of them were still on opposite sides of the couch, no closer to each other then they had been when they were awake. They were both slumped down slightly, but not sliding off the couch either. John had his chin resting on his chest with his head leaning to the right, his upper body almost hanging over the couch's arm. Faye had her head tilted back over the top of the couch, mouth wide open. It was easy to tell from the looks on their faces they had been unquestionably drunk and both of them were noticeably drooling. The empty bottle of Cognac lay in the middle, both their hands grasping it. No puke, no inappropriately placed body parts, and no evidence of anything happening that shouldn't have.

"That wasn't funny." Faye growled, glaring daggers at Spike, who was still smiling at the two of them. She'd used better material then that before on some of her bounty hunts. Low-level flunkies always talked easier if you showed them a picture of something like them passed out with their head in a toilet.

"Real great blackmail." John added with a growl of his own. "I've helped break up frat parties that looked a lot worse then that." Spike didn't loose his near evil smile, and neither did Ed.

"If you think that then you're not looking hard enough." Spike said cryptically. They looked at him blankly, neither of them getting it.

"Images in images. Truth to be told in the most itty bitty detail." Ed chanted. John and Faye looked on in confusion when Ed began pointing to one particular part of the picture. "Look and see what the all seeing Ed can see!" She challenged. Faye and John concentrated (squinted actually) on where Ed was pointing, the empty bottle, but couldn't tell what she meant. Then as their vision slowly began to focus they began to see things in greater detail. They weren't grabbing the bottle in an attempt to take it from the other, in fact it was being ignored. What they had missed the first time they had looked was that the two of them were holding hands! Add to it that despite the fact they were drunk both of them looked to be sleeping contently, it gave more then a couple of hints that neither of them really wanted to be publicly known. John's response was to bury his face in his hands, though it did him little good as his ears were now a deep red. Faye faired no better, slumping down in an attempt to disappear in-between the couch cushions while covering her face with her good hand, utterly failing to hide the fact she had turned as deep a shade of red as John.

"Told you it would make good blackmail material." Spike told them, trying his best not to laugh.

"Ed doesn't understand what's so bad about it." Ed chimed in. "Ed thinks Faye Faye and big brother John look cute like that." Ein barked several times in agreement while John and Faye both groaned in unison, much louder and even more dejected sounding then before.

"You don't like looking cute, don't get drunk when there's someone with a camera around the two of you." Jet told them. The two of them looked up and glared at Jet, who was now half smiling at them. "You'll get coffee and aspirin once we're in orbit so I suggest you get moving if you want those headaches to go away." Faye flinched and John sighed, each of them imagining what it would be like to fly back to the Bebop, then getting out of the canyon and into the orbit of a planet like _this_, while still thoroughly hung over.

"I think sitting here and dying would be easier." Faye grumbled, but she used her good arm to push herself off the couch. Every muscle in her body, especially her wounds, let her know just what a bad idea moving was in her condition. "Unnnnnnn!" She groaned as she lurched to her feet. She swayed unsteadily for a moment before finding her balance and looking over to John. He was having a harder time getting up then she did. With only one good leg he needed to pull himself up using his crutches and keep himself balanced while he was able to shift them underneath his arms. He had managed to grab the crutches and stand them up in front of him but Faye could see he was going to struggle to get to his feet without support. Not waiting to see if the others would help or not Faye stepped over, grabbed John underneath one arm, and lifted him with all the strength she could muster.

"Guuuuhhhhh!" It looked like John's body wasn't letting him off the hook anymore then Faye's had but he managed to stand and walk forward a little and balance himself on the crutches before he could fall flat on his face. "Thanks." He told her with a nod.

"Don't mention it." She replied, before moving right next to him, putting her arm over his shoulders and leaning against him with almost all her weight.

"Wha…?" John started to protest.

"Be quiet." Faye cut him off. "I carried you around yesterday so now you can return the favor." John looked at her for a moment before shaking his head in resignation. "Now get going. I need coffee and a shower." She ordered. John sighed and shook his head again.

"Where's the ride?" He asked Jet, ignoring look he, and everyone else, were giving the two of them.

"Flight attendant Ed will show our lucky contestants their first class flight ready to take them to their wonderful destination." Ed said, announcing it like they were getting ready to leave on a first class vacation. Placing Tomato on top of her head Ed began marching towards the exit to the foyer, Ein falling in beside her. Faye and John followed, walking awkwardly but with as much dignity as their hung over movements would allow, still pretending that the looks everyone else was giving them were just figments of their imagination. The last three let them go outside first and waited a few moments before following to make sure any conversation they had wouldn't be heard.

"Well at least one good thing came out of all this." Jet commented as he watched Faye and John both support and almost knock each other over at the same time as they staggered forward. With all the death and loss that had been inflicted in the past few days, it was good to see something truly positive emerge from the experience.

"Two good things." Meifa amended, causing Jet and Spike to look back to her. "What Arnold managed to become. He showed that things aren't chained to fate and they can make their own, for the better if they choose to." She was right of course. Arnold had been created as nothing more then a mindless, utterly ruthless killing machine but thanks to Ed giving him the ability to make a choice he had managed move beyond something so simplistic.

"A terminator learning the value of human life." Spike remarked, before letting out a small laugh. "Yeah, that's something I definitely didn't see coming."

"Maybe that means there's hope for the rest of us." Jet added. Before Spike or Meifa could offer a response they all heard Faye shriek 'WHAT?!' and looked ahead just in time to see Faye step away from John a split second before slapping him over the back of the head. It wasn't that hard of a slap but in his current state it was enough to send John pitching forward, keeping a grip on his crutches but looking like it was certain he was about to get a face full of dirt. He would have, if Faye hadn't grabbed his arm, almost making herself fall on top of him in the process, and yanked him upward. That in turn almost made the two of them fall flat on their backs but after a moment of stumbling they were able to right themselves and kept walking as if nothing had happened, Faye's arm back around John's back and now her head on his shoulder. Ed laughed and clapped at the almost wipeout while Ein let out a series of rapid barks that sounded like a cross between cheering and laughter. The other three just watched in silence for a moment before Spike put in his two cents.

"I'm going to guess no." He said in a way that made it very hard to determine if he was kidding as he watched Faye and John limp ahead. Jet let out a huff of laughter but didn't say anything.

"There's always hope." Meifa replied, smiling as she watched the two. Jet and Spike exchanged glances before Spike gave a small shrug, which Jet returned, before starting towards the transport. After all the things they had seen, who were they to determine what was possible and what wasn't?

* * *

A/N:

* * *

Thus concludes the trilogy. I hope everyone has enjoyed reading it and I'd like to give my apologies to everyone for the incredibly long time it took to get this final story out, as well as my thanks to those to stuck with it for all this time. Dividing my time between this and my other story, which came after the real world giving me such a first rate ass-whupping it actually killed my drive to write for quite a long while, had it come out nowhere near as quickly as it should have. I offer no excuses, just explanations. A writer needs to be just as loyal to their readers as they are to them and in that regard I failed miserably. I can only hope that my negligence didn't drive away as many fans of this series as I fear it might have, and that the ones that are still here don't hold it against me. Though I would not be at all surprised and understand completely if they did. On the brighter side of things being able to concentrate solely on one story for the time being (until another batch of inspiration hits me at least) will enable me to complete it at a faster rate then has been the case recently.

Again many thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read and enjoy these three stories. I hope you continue to enjoy my other story as well if you are inclined to read it. And another round of special thanks to long time readers who have stayed with me this entire time, it's people like you that make writing worthwhile.


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